New flesh !

« A real journey is the one that teaches you something different from what you expected. You need to change direction, to create and to discover. The real discovery is unpredictable. » How could we not share this wise thought from the spirited epistemologist Michel Serres. For over 20 years, we have been doing our best to demonstrate it to you and this year's prestigious cast is here to prove it. From the free spirit Benoit Delepine to the untenable British filmmaker Ben Wheatley and with Canada's ebullient Guy Maddin, who each honors us with a carte blanche, to the legendary Californian members of The Residents who settle at the Festival for two days of highly off-the-wall concerts and an intimate evening, « freedom of tone » seems to been deeply linked to your favorite event.

Every edition is an excuse for a celebration. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the International Short-film Competition. An occasion for Canal+ Short Programs to offer us a high quality double-feature, a best of those past two decades. The inspiring Serge Bromberg is presenting another splendid Retour de Flamme with the restored version of Marcel L'Herbier's The Inhuman Woman. The coincidence of an outstanding documentary on the history of popular Turkish cinema, allows us to propose a Focus on Turkish Delights, with three remakes pretty typical of the genre... Once again, the variety of films selected for the International Feature-film Competition is going to make it a real puzzle for both the jury and the public to vote for the the 2015 Grand Prix. It'll be the same for the short-film selection as well. With the richness of the works discovered this year, we created two new sections : New Talents, for the first feature-films of promising directors and MondoVision, a stimulating digest of 2015. Finally, the Nuit de l'Etrange is back by popular demand and for the night-owls' pleasure and with a striking program. Zygomatic beware !

Some may wonder whether last year's gargantuan anniversary program was anything but an appetizer to this actual feast.

Excellent festival to all !

L'Étrange Festival