Édition 2023

Each year, Cinéma du réel ponders upon the state of the documentary, its forms, its developments and the approaches of its filmmakers. This is what lends the festival its exploratory side, making it an ongoing research project. In addition to the screening of this flourishing contemporary international documentary cinema, Cinéma du réel invites us to experience the world and cinema through a plethora of gazes on the world, a plurality of documentary practices and visions other than our own. Because cinema passes from the filmmaker’s mind to the mind of the spectator, it is an art of connivance, even collusion, between filmmaker and spectator, who experiences another imaginary, a universe other than his or her own. But this experience – which is also that of the other or rather the distance separating him or her from me – is singular inasmuch as it also reminds us that we all inhabit the same world. A world to watch without being blinded by the continuous flow of events. And it is perhaps through films that disturb, upend imaginaries, confront other desires, other aspirations, other dreams, that a discontinuity occurs in the inexorable unfolding of real-world events. This discontinuity, which questions, surprises, resists, delights, is what helps us to avoid being blinded and to look at our contemporaries. This is our invitation to the audiences of Cinéma du réel. Catherine Bizern

Special screenings

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Opening night and closing night, sneak previews and French premieres of films acclaimed in the biggest international festivals: every day, these special events bring together viewers and filmmakers and offer an exclusive chance to explore the most talked-about films of the moment.

These special events are also an opportunity to indulge in other experiences, with hearing sessions showcasing documentary and fiction radio pieces in collaboration with France Culture, and inclusive screenings for people with disabilities designed to tackle the question of self-image and how it can be reclaimed. Over the course of the festival, as viewers go from one screening to the next, these events are also a chance to slip into a different pace: by seeing Amos Gitaï’s House trilogy in three sittings or in one afternoon, in a nod to the same-titled play recently created by Gitaï at the Théâtre de la Colline; by discovering Mehran Tamadon’s two latest films back-to-back to better grasp their full extent; and by joining in the three-part celebration of the work of Jean-Louis Comolli—in memory of the man, of the thinker, and of the filmmaker.