Two prizes for digital creation at Fipadoc 2020
The Biarritz International Documentary Festival, which ended on January 26, this year featured 25 digital documentary works. Travelling While Black by Felix et Paul studio and CHEF.FE by Camille Ducellier were the winners.
Updated on 04/02/2020
2 min
Fipadoc presents a selection of exceptional documentary works designed for all screens and accommodating all types of writing. In addition to documentaries distributed in cinemas or for television, Fipadoc's official selection has for several years given pride of place to digital creation. 25 documentary works – web series, virtual reality films, transmedia creations – were presented in this way in the SMART selection in the course of the festival. They offer both the general public and professionals the opportunity to discover forms of storytelling that use new technologies to tell the story of the real world. These include many French works such as the beautiful virtual reality film L’Obsession des nymphéas (The Water Lily Obsession) by Nicolas Thépot and the hilarious and exciting Lost in Traplanta, a web series by Mathieu Rochet.
SMART Prize and Nouvelles Écritures (New Writing) Prize
Two prizes were awarded for the originality and quality of these productions: the SMART Prize was awarded to the magnificent virtual reality documentary Travelling While Black from the Quebec-based studio Felix and Paul, and the Nouvelles Écritures Prize, which praised Camille Ducelier’s excellent web series CHEF.FE, following the daily life of young orchestra conductor Lucie Leguay. In five episodes following the different stages of her year, the series immerses the audience in the world of orchestral direction through the eyes of a young multifaceted conductor. This is work is both exciting and necessary as it sheds light on a profession that is 97% male...
Discovering new forms of writing
Led by its president Anne Georget and its delegate general Christine Camdessus, Fipadoc stands out for its strong desire to include digital creation in its official selection and competition. The International Documentary Festival thus makes it possible to promote high-quality documentary content which is sometimes difficult to access (such as virtual reality films), and to give these works longevity, just like "classic" films. It thus fosters bridges with the audiovisual professionals who participate in Fipadoc by introducing them to exciting forms of digital documentary writing with the same high standards as documentaries for theatres and television.
As Felix Lajeunesse, winner of the SMART Award, points out, this recognition is essential to this demanding creative sector.
The Institut français promotes digital creation internationally through bilingual sites dedicated to different creative sectors such as virtual reality on Culturevr.fr, the innovative book on Futurlivre.fr and web creation on Futurimage.fr.
It also makes available to the French cultural network abroad and its partners a selection of films in virtual reality.