Philippe Lacôte
Patron of La Fabrique Cinéma 2024 de l'Institut français
In 2018, my last feature film, 'La Nuit des Rois', was one of the projects selected at 'La Fabrique'. With my producer Ernest Konan, it was a very rewarding experience. Then 'La Nuit des Rois' premiered in Venice in September 2020, and things started to pick up speed, culminating in an English-language film produced by Amazon Studios.
Returning here 6 years later is far from another everyday event. It's an opportunity to reconnect with what had already struck me: these young filmmakers from all over the world, all sharing the same desire: to tell the story of where they come from and who they are, through the medium of film. And for their producers, the relentless desire to find the right economics for THESE FILMS.
It involves trying to shine a light on the centre from the exterior and the norm through its margins. Using images and sound to show that the world is not one but many, that the dream in motion is not totally inaccessible to those waiting on the other shore... Always being driven by the same idea: that all peoples have the same right to tell their own stories.
For all these reasons, and because the Festival de Cannes is an important part of my story as a filmmaker, I am delighted to be the patron of the 2024 La Fabrique Cinéma de l'Institut français.
Biography
Philippe Lacôte discovered cinema in the theatres of Abidjan. In the 1980s, as a neighbour of the "Magic", he was introduced to genre films through Bollywood productions and martial arts films. His work as a director began with short films shot in 35mm and in black and white, before focusing on the recent history of Côte d'Ivoire.
In 2002, he filmed his childhood neighbourhood during the first three weeks of the curfew that plunged his country into armed rebellion. The result was Chroniques de guerre en Côte d'Ivoire, both a portrait of a country in crisis and an autobiographical story. In 2014, his first feature film Run was selected at Cannes (Un certain regard). La Nuit des Rois, his second feature film selected at La Fabrique Cinéma, had its world premiere in Venice. Produced by Banshee Films, it won numerous awards, including the Amplify Voices prize at TIFF and the Youth Jury Award in Rotterdam. The film was distributed in the USA by NEON and shortlisted for the 2021 Oscars.
Alongside his career as a scriptwriter and director, Philippe Lacôte was a production assistant at Atria, where he worked alongside filmmakers Souleymane Cissé, Rithy Panh and Raoul Peck. He then co-founded Wassakara Productions, which supports new talent and develops series on the African continent.
Philippe Lacôte is currently in post-production on the feature film Killer Heat, for Amazon Studios. He is also developing a new feature film, Les 7 voleurs d'or, which he is co-directing with Delphine Jaquet. Told from the perspective of a Sufi community in Harlem, the story follows the exile of a family struck by a curse. Les 7 voleurs d'or has been selected for the Villa Albertine writing residencies.