The fifth annual French Riviera Film Festival (FRFF), held on May 19 and 20, 2023 in Cannes, France, has revealed the winning shorts of the 2023 competition, the announcement was made today by festival co-founders Gotham Chandna and Nicole Goesseringer Muj.
First launched in 2019, FRFF recognizes and celebrates short-form content created for film, television, web and all digital platforms. Scheduled during the time period of the Festival de Cannes, FRFF invites filmmakers from around the globe to participate in the two-day event that includes screenings, Global Entertainment Showcase, VIP receptions, and closing gala awards ceremony.
REELated:
Featuring the works of filmmakers from more than 20 countries, the 2023 FRFF winners in the award categories of Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Sci-Fi/Horror, Animation, Experimental, Lifestyle/Fashion, Music Video, Micro Short, Activism, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress are:
Best Drama – Till I Return
Best Comedy – A Bad Shag
Best Documentary – The Key To Heaven
Best Sci-Fi/Horror – Colin Francis Costello’s Storage
Best Animation – Somewhere
Experimental – Totem
Best Fashion/Lifestyle – SALT
Best Music Video – Love Louder – The Meeps
Best Microshort – 13 Days Before Winter
Activism – Chinese Laundry
Best Director – Ramy Moharam Fouad (Till I Return)
Best Actress – “Juliet” Lynn Cohen, Diane Cossa, Amelia Sorensen (Wherefore Art Thou?)
Best Actor – Michaël Balducchi (A Bad Shag)
During the festival, Rising Star and Industry Excellence Awards were also presented. At the VIP opening reception at Bel-Air Fine Art Gallery, Nigel Daly, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and writer-filmmaker Louise Salter were presented with the 2023 Industry Excellence Award, and Armenian American actress/filmmaker/entrepreneur Diana Madison was awarded with the Rising Star prize.
The Industry Excellence Award was also presented to award-winning Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap during the closing gala reception at Eden Hotel & Spa. Festival attendees and participants included filmmakers, industry executives, celebrities, media and influencers.
The festival began with a special out-of-competition screening of the Oscar-nominated short Ivalu (Denmark/Greenland), by director Anders Walter, and producers Rebecca Pruzan and Kim Magnusson. Magnusson also received the FRFF Industry Excellence Award in 2022, in recognition of his stellar work in the global film industry.
The fest’s annual Global Entertainment Showcase held on the morning of May 20th was moderated by Movie Marker Magazine awards editor Rehna Azim, and featured panelists Diana Madison (Diana Madison Productions), Chadwick Pelletier (DaVinci International Film Festival), and Viviane Winthrop (The Last of the Winthrops.)
Online festival passes are still available on the SPARQ platform until June 30, 2023.
