2024 Cannes’ La Résidence: Molly Manning Walker Among Half Dozen Selected
The huge winner of the last Un Certain Regard section in Molly Manning Walker (watch the award’s ceremony below for the craziest ever acceptance below) is among the half dozen participants for what is essentially an incubator of sorts (and professional network helper par excellence) where six burgeoning filmmakers become residents in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. Created in 2000, La Résidence has invited Walker with Ernst De Geer, Daria Kashcheeva, Danech San, Anastasiia Solonevych and Aditya Ahmad. Some of the names have a past history with Cannes, but for the most part are unknowns but might one day crack a future Cannes line-up and their projects could be packaged in just a couple of years and move into production as early as 2026. Here are the bios:
Molly Manning Walker is a writer, director and cinematographer based in London. She graduated from the NFTS in 2019 with a master in cinematography. Her first feature film as a cinematographer was the directorial debut of Charlotte Regan – Scrapper, which premiered at Sundance in 2023 and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize. Molly’s directorial debut How To Have Sex premiered at Cannes 2023 in the Un Certain Regard section. It went on to win the Un Certain Regard Prize. Since then, How To Have Sex has gone on to win over twenty awards including the discovery award at the European film awards, best lead performance at the BIFAS. It was nominated for 4 BAFTAS including Best British film and Outstanding Debut. Molly is interested in social commentary films that question the way we live our lives.
Born in 1989, Aditya Ahmad is an Indonesian director and writer. He graduated from Makassar Institute of Arts in 2013 with a short film as his final project. This film, On Stopping The Rain, was awarded with a Special Mention by the Children’s Jury Generation KPlus at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival (2014). Since 2013, Aditya works for several films and TV commercials projects. He participated in Asian Film Academy 2014 and Berlinale Talents in 2015. His short film A Gift was world premiered in the Orizzonti Short Films Competition at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and won Best Short Film. He is currently writing his debut feature film.
Born in Tajikistan, Daria Kashcheeva is an independent filmmaker based in Prague and a graduate of FAMU. Her Bachelor’s animation short Daughter (2019) has got more than 100 awards at festivals worldwide including the Best Student film at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, the Sundance Animation Jury Award, the Student Academy Award and was nominated to the 92nd Oscar Academy Award. Her master degree film Electra (2023) premiered at the Festival de Cannes and got the Best Short film award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Working with actors and human-sized puppets, Daria blends live action with stop-motion animation to explore themes of gender identity, sexuality, and body perception. Through the integration of hybrid forms, she aims to challenge and expand the constraints of conventional film genres.
Danech San is a Cambodian director born in Battambang in 1991. After moving to Phnom Penh to study Interior Design, Danech turned into filmmaking and has worked in different production roles with Anti-Archive since 2015. Her first short film, A Million Years, won Best Southeast Asian Short at Singapore IFF 2018 and the Arte Award at Kurzfilm Hamburg 2019. Sunrise In My Mind, her second short film, held its world premiere in competition in 2020 in Busan International Film Festival and won the Grand Prize for live action shorts at PÖFF Shorts in Tallinn, Estonia. Both films have been broadcasted on Arte. She is an alumnus of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy and SEAFIC Seed Lab. Danech is also the founder of the Kampung Film Festival which promotes cinema culture in a non-urban context of Cambodia. She is currently developing her first feature film To Leave, To Stay.
Ernst De Geer, born in 1989, is a Swedish director. He studied at The Norwegian Film School. His graduation short film The Culture won several prizes around the world and was nominated for the Norwegian National Film Award, Amanda. His feature film debut The Hypnosis premiered in Crystal Globe Competition at Karlovy Vary, where it won three awards.
Anastasiia Solonevych is a director from Kyiv, Ukraine. She graduated from the Film and Television Directing program at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2021. Her debut short film, As It Was (co-directed with Damian Kocur), was Palme d’or nominated at the Festival de Cannes in 2023. Since 2017, Anastasiia has been actively involved in the film industry, as a 1st Assistant Director and contributing to various roles in commercials, feature films, and TV series. Anastasiia focuses on delving into the lives of ordinary people in unique settings, blending fiction and nonfiction with a stylistic touch. Embracing simplicity, she communicates thoughts in straightforward language, values minimalism, and emphasizes genuine moments with clarity and sincerity.
