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The roster of short/medium-length and feature-length films selected for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des cinéastes) has been announced, with the event set to run May 14-24 alongside the prestigious Festival de Cannes. This year’s lineup includes two animated shorts and one animated feature, reflecting the growing profile of the artform in the larger world of cinematic arts.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) will be represented by Bread Will Walk (Le pain se lève), from Bulgarian-born director Alex Boya (Turbine). The 11’18” short is a feverish dark comedy rendered in paper, hand-drawn 2D and digital collage.
The English-language short is voiced entirely by Canadian actor Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon franchise, This Is the End), and is produced by Jelena Popović. Bread Will Walk has also been selected for this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Synopsis: The planet is starving, but a corporation called The Mill has the solution: miracle bread. Except it turns people who eat it into fresh loaves of walking bread. A devoted sister tries to save her little bread-brother, who’s being pursued by a hungry mob through twisted streets. Hunger reigns, reason crumbles. In a world that wants to eat you alive, can love defy appetite?
France’s indie animation powerhouse Miyu Production, which is already celebrating the selection of its feature film Dandelion’s Oddyssey as the closing night film of the Cannes Critic’s Week, is now toasting two projects in the Quinzaine.
In the short section is 2D-animated Death of a Fish (La Mort du poisson) by Éva Lusbaronian (director, Que dalle, Coil; animator, Mum Is Pouring Rain). The project was funded by the MEDIA Creative Europe program.
Synopsis: The traumatic event sometimes replays itself within the trivial. The death of a fish awakens the sorrows of a lifetime. The Mother’s great losses take shape in the form of doubles, drawing her toward the center of a pond where her depression crystallizes. The Daughter uses dance to hold her back, as words seem devoid of meaning. The figure of a Heron, both symbolic and ordinary, urges the girl to accept her powerlessness and find her place.
Miyu will also have a film in the features screenings with the 2D digital drama Death Does Not Exist (La Mort n’existe pas) from award-winning French-Canadian animation filmmaker Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Archipelago, Ville Neuve, Transatlantique), co-produced by his studio Embuscade Films in Canada.
Death Does Not Exist screened as Work-in-Progress at the 2024 Annecy Festival (where Dufour-Laperrière was previously awarded a Jury Distinction in the Contrechamp competition for Archipelago). The film is produced by Nicolas & Felix Dufour-Laperrière at Embuscade Films and Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron at Miyu. UFO Distribution will release the film in France and Maison 4:3 in Canada. International rights are handled by Brussels-based Bet Friend Forever.
Synopsis: After a failed armed attack on wealthy landowners, Hélène abandons her companions and flees into the forest, where metamorphoses and great upheavals will soon disrupt the natural order of things.
Created in 1969 by the Société des Réalisatrices et Réalisateurs de Films (SRF), the Directors’ Fortnight is an independent, non-competitive sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival, which is dedicated to showcasing the most singular forms of contemporary cinema.
See the full list of 2025 films at quinzaine-cineastes.fr.
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