CannesDirectors Fortnight is launching a new Peoples Choice audience award at its upcoming edition, running alongside the main festival from May 15-26.
The parallel section said the award, which comes with a 7,500 ($8,100) cash prize, was in keeping with the spirit of the event, which has always been open to members of the public alongside cinema professionals since its launch in 1969.
It will be the first audience award to be introduced in Cannes, across the Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors Fortnight, Critics Week and Acid.
Directors' Fortnight People’s Choice, Chantal AkermanDF, Getty Images
Related Stories
MK2 Films & IPR.VC Unveil First Investment On Marie Kreutzer’s ‘Gentle Monster’
Goodfellas Boards Cannes Directors' Fortnight Cameroon-Set Police Drama ‘Untamable’
Every year, in addition to professionals and other accredited guests, the Fortnight opens its doors to thousands of cinephiles from around the world, to make it share its selection in a welcoming setting, giving filmmakers the opportunity to meet the first audience for their films, and the audiences a chance to take part in Q&As with film teams, Directors Fortnight said in a statement.
Watch on Deadline
It is this interactive dimension that wed like to celebrate today by inviting our audiences to vote: this will also mark the first audience award in the history of the Festival de Cannes, it added.
Directors Fortnight said the new award would be connected to the legacy of Chantal Akerman and that the cash prize was being supported by the Fondation Chantal Akerman.
The section suggested that the late filmmakers pioneering, eclectic and fiercely independent vision might serve as a compass for the new award.
Groundbreaking Belgian filmmaker Akerman, who died at the age of 65 in 2015, had close ties with Directors Fortnight.
Her breakthrough filmJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Brussel, which is now regarded as 20th Century feature film classic, world premiered in the section in 1975.
Directors Fortnight also welcomed subsequent worksGolden Eighties(1986),South(1999),The Captive(2000) andTombee de Nuit sur Shanghai(2007), her segment in the portmanteau filmState of the Worldwith Ayisha Abraham and Wang Bing.
