Festivals - My first Festival 2021 : Discover the program

By Mulder, 28 september 2021

Mon Premier Festival will open its 17th edition on Wednesday, October 20th at 3pm, in the main hall of the Forum des images, with the preview screening of the film La Croisade, in the presence of its director Louis Garrel, the film's crew, the festival's godmother, Ariane Ascaride, and the animated film director Rémi Chayé, guest of honor of the festival. The film, which was part of the Climate Selection at the last Cannes Film Festival, will be released on December 22, distributed by Ad Vitam.

This year, the festival will take place over 10 days, 3 days during school time for Parisian schoolchildren and 7 days during the All Saints' Day vacations for the general public. More than 100 recent or heritage films, 300 screenings often followed by animations around the films will be offered, at the unique price of 4€ per screening, in 12 Parisian cinemas as well as at the Forum des images and at the Gaîté lyrique. Screenings, event sessions, workshops and lots of great moments, not to be missed under any circumstances.

Ariane Ascaride, the godmother of this 17th edition, will be present at the opening of the festival, surrounded by the young members of the jury, to encourage the young spectators to come and taste the pleasure of cinema in theaters. For her, "children are a remarkable audience, they see everything with such a sharp eye, much faster than adults". Her three favorite films in the program are Les Quatre Cents Coups by François Truffaut, Mon voisin Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki and La Gloire de mon père by Yves Robert. She will come to the Studio des Ursulines on October 25 at 10:15 am to present Les Héritiers by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar in which she plays the main role, La Gloire de mon père at the Louxor on October 29 at 10:15 am and will be present at the closing ceremony at the Cinéma des cinéastes on October 29 at 3 pm.
 
Rémi Chayé, guest of honor of the festival will be present at the festival on October 23, 24 and 26 to meet the public and the screenings of his films will be followed by many workshops. It will be an opportunity to discover on the big screen his collaborations on the films Brendan and the Secret of Kells by Tomm Moore or Kérity, la maison des contes by Dominique Monféry, to see or re-see Tout en haut du monde, his first feature film which took him eleven years to make, or Calamity, a childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, his latest film awarded the Cristal for feature film at Annecy. "Animation is not a long quiet river" he admits with humility, exigency, creativity and patience, while he is preparing a new project today.

Previews in competition
This year, 17 international films will be competing for the Audience Award, the Music Award and the Jury Award. Numerous screenings will be offered in the presence of the film teams: Las Niñas by Pilar Palomero (to be released on Oct. 27), Marcher sur l'eau, a documentary by Aïssa Maïga (to be released on Nov. 10), "Maman pleut des cordes", a program of 4 short films (to be released on Dec. 1), Où est Anne Frank! ), Princesse Dragon, an animated film by Anthony Roux and Jean-Jacques Denis (release Dec. 15), Belle, an animated film by Mamoru Hosoda (release Dec. 29), Le Chêne by Laurent Charbonnier and Michel Seydoux (coming soon), Coeurs vaillants by Mona Achache (coming soon)... to name a few.

In nature
What is man's relationship with nature? How do we live together? Who can help us become aware of today's environmental challenges? To reflect on these questions, Mon Premier Festival proposes to share the views of several filmmakers through thirty films on the theme "In Nature", in different genres and for all ages. Two short film programs, "In Nature" and "Listening to Nature", have been specially created by Mon Premier Festival.

Focus on Iranian cinema
Poetic and courageous, Iranian cinema excels in depicting a society from a child's point of view with an extraordinary sharpness of vision. Often subject to censorship, Iranian cinema has won many awards at major international festivals since the 1980s. Without a strong message, it delivers, beyond the description of a difficult social and cultural reality, a communicative energy of life, universal and essential to all. My First Festival offers a selection of unforgettable films made between the end of the 1970s and today: the unseen film Blue Girl by Keivan Majidi, a little-known film by Abbas Kiarostami Le Costume de Mariage (The Wedding Suit), the essential Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud...

8 film-concerts
The film-concerts are the most popular events of the festival because of their fun and festive aspect. They bring to the images an original dimension with a wide variety of musical styles: pop, ragtime, electro-swing, indie folk, minimalist music... To be discovered this year, "Dans la nature", a Mon Premier Festival creation in partnership with the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, two Forum des images Tout-Petits Cinéma 2021 creations: "Amis pour la vie" by Isabelle Moricheau and "Au coeur de la nuit" by Sophie Maurin, "Alice Comedies" by Laurent Pontoizeau and "Lumières! During the closing ceremony, the audience of Mon Premier Festival will have the opportunity to discover "Buster fait des vagues", a creation of the Royal Boudoir Orchestra.

Waiting for the Games
The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games are back in Paris in 2024, a century after the 1924 edition. While waiting for the event, Mon Premier Festival proposes three different views of filmmakers on the world of sports: "Graine de champion", 3 short documentaries by Simon Lereng Wilmont and Victor Kossakovsky, "Parfaites", a documentary by Jérémie Battaglia and "Mica" by Ismaël Ferroukhi.

Cult films
Inscribed in memories, emblematic with a public of fans, cult films have the power to be seen again and again. Robin Hood, an animated film by Wolfgang Reitherman, Song in the Rain by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly and The Visitors by Jean-Marie Poiré are on the program of Mon Premier Festival... A pleasure to share between generations.

Many meetings with those who make films, directors, actors, producers: Ariane Ascaride, Aïssa Maïga, Louis Garrel, Jean Cottin, Laurent Charbonnier, Michel Seydoux, Juan Antin, Charlotte Silvera, Léo Marchand, Hugo de Faucompret, Mona Achache, Ismaël Ferroukhi...

More than 70 animated sessions
Storytelling movies, movie workshops, creative workshops, movie debates, a movie-majority, music movies, a movie-philosophy, and even a movie-gardening! Not forgetting the sessions with costumes, karaoke, movie quizzes, and the welcome baby sessions with adapted light and sound...

Closing ceremony
To close the festival in style, a festive ceremony will take place on Friday, October 29 at 3pm at the Cinéma des cinéastes, during which the Paris Mômes Audience Award, the Music Award for films for young audiences, with the Sacem, and the Ciné+ Famiz Jury Award will be presented. This jury is, as every year, supervised by the Cinémathèque Robert-Lynen of the city of Paris. The ceremony will be followed by the cine-concert "Buster makes waves", a burlesque program of 2 short films by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, accompanied by the Royal Boudoir Orchestra and its acoustic guitars, slides and ukuleles, for a session of great sonic diversity, surprising and rhythmic.

Mon Premier Festival, the young audience film festival of the city of Paris, produced by the association Enfances au Cinéma, takes place every year before and during the All Saints' Day vacations, in 12 Art et Essai partner cinemas, with special screenings at the Forum des images and at the Gaîté lyrique. 5,000 festival-goers attended the first year, reaching 36,000 spectators in 2019 and more than 26,000 in 2020 despite the health situation The festival has continued to win over new audiences and to build loyalty among spectators who are very attached to the event. Its large and varied audience, ranging from 18 months to 102 years old, is mainly composed of families, children from the City of Paris' leisure centers, as well as spectators from the City's political districts.

Every year, Mon Premier Festival proposes about thirty films around a theme, a focus on the cinematography of a country, honors a personality, presents a selection of fifteen or so new films or previews in competition for the Jury Prize and the Audience Prize, as well as film-concerts, the discovery of three cinema professions, cult films, without forgetting numerous animations, workshops and meetings with various guests. A prestigious personality transmits his taste for cinema to the young public and supports the festival by accepting to be its godfather or godmother: Ariane Ascaride this year, Bérénice Béjo last year, Léa Drucker in 2019, Pascal Elbé in 2018, Anaïs Demoustier in 2017, Cédric Klapisch in 2016, Marjane Satrapi in 2015, Zabou Breitman in 2014, Cédric Kahn in 2013, Julie Gayet in 2012, Ludivine Sagnier in 2011, Marina Foïs in 2010, Emma de Caunes in 2009, Karin Viard in 2008, Guillaume Canet in 2007, Alain Chabat in 2006 and Elie Semoun in 2005.

Practical information: 
From Wednesday 20 to Friday 29 October 2021
School screenings on October 20, 21 and 22, then 3 or 4 screenings per day from October 23 to 29 in 12 art house cinemas in Paris, and 3 screenings at the Gaîté Lyrique and the Forum des images
4 € per screening for all, loyalty card of 5 tickets with 6th ticket offered.

(Source: Press release)