The NFB at the 2024 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival . Two films in competition: Romane Garant Chartrand’s Après-coups, making its international premiere, and Ryo Orikasa’s Miserable Miracle

December 19, 2023 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada will be among the contenders for top awards at this year’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, with two powerful films that were selected from more than 9,400 submissions. Romane Garant Chartrand’s documentary Après-coups (Afterwards) will have its international premiere in the International Competition, while the animated short Miserable Miracle by Ryo Orikasa, a Miyu Productions/NFB/New Deer co-production, will screen in the Lab Competition. The renowned festival will be held from February 2 to 10, 2024. It is the largest event of its kind dedicated to short films.

Quick Facts

International Competition

Après-coups (Afterwards) by Romane Garant Chartrand (24 min 51 s) – INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Producer: Nathalie Cloutier for the NFB’s Eastern Canada and Canadian Francophonie Documentary Studios
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/afterwards

• Inside a shelter, women come together and speak out against the violence they have endured, as a way to retake control of their lives. Powerfully empathetic, Après-coups (Afterwards) creates a space of sisterhood and solidarity—a chorus of voices breaking down the walls of silence.

• The film had its world premiere at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) and will be streaming in Canada on ca as of February 12, 2024.

• Filmmaker Romane Garant Chartrand’s graduation film, Love-moi(2021), was selected to screen at about 20 festivals and won the Coup de cœur du jury Award at the Plein(s) Écran(s) festival.

• Alongside the director, associate producer Laurie Pominville was selected to produce this film as part of the NFB’s Repêchage initiative for emerging cinema professionals, in collaboration with UQAM.

Lab Competition

Miserable Miracle by Ryo Orikasa (8 min)
Produced by Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron for Miyu Productions; Jelena Popović, Robert McLaughlin and Michael Fukushima for the NFB; Nobuaki Doi for New Deer; with the support of CNC & the Ciclic Animation Residency.
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/miserable-miracle

• Miserable Miracle was inspired by Henri Michaux’s book of poetry and drawings of the same name. Masterful in both vision and execution, the film explores the limits of language and perception, creating dazzling connections between sound, meaning, shapes and movement. Propelling viewers beyond the page, guided by Denis Lavant’s feverish voiceover in French, the poems map the human psyche to the very edges of alienation and transcendence.
• The film has already had a successful festival run, notably in Canada with selections at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), where it took the Grand Prize for Short Animation, the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax, the Spark Animation Festival in Vancouver and the Whistler Festival.
• Canadian talent worked on the sound design (Sacha Ratcliffe and Pierre Yves Drapeau) and music composition (Sacha Ratcliffe).
• Born in Ibaraki, Japan, and now based in Tokyo, Ryo Orikasa first came to prominence in 2015 with Datum Point, winner of the Golden Zagreb at Animafest Zagreb and Best Experimental or Abstract Animation Award at OIAF.

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