French Riviera Film Festival Announces 2023 Winning Shorts and Specialty Awards

The fifth annual French Riviera Film Festival (FRFF), held on May 19 and 20, 2023 in Cannes, France,  has revealed the winning shorts of the 2023 competition, the announcement was made today by festival co-founders Gotham Chandna and Nicole Goesseringer Muj.

Official 2023 FRFF Festival Trailer:  https://youtu.be/AtK-7Y0zYMI

First launched in 2019, FRFF recognizes and celebrates short-form content created for film, television, web and all digital platforms. Scheduled during the time period of the Festival de Cannes, FRFF invites filmmakers from around the globe to participate in the two-day event that includes screenings, Global Entertainment Showcase, VIP receptions, and closing gala awards ceremony.

Featuring the works of filmmakers from more than 20 countries, the 2023 FRFF winners in the award categories of Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Sci-Fi/Horror, Animation, Experimental, Lifestyle/Fashion, Music Video, Micro Short, Activism, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress are:

Best Drama - Till I Return

Best Comedy - A Bad Shag

Best Documentary - The Key To Heaven

Best Sci-Fi/Horror - Storage

Best Animation - Somewhere

Experimental - Totem

Best Fashion/Lifestyle - SALT

Best Music Video - Love Louder - The Meeps

Best Microshort - 13 Days Before Winter

Activism - Chinese Laundry

Best Director - Ramy Moharam Fouad (Till I Return)

Best Actress -  "Juliet" Lynn Cohen, Diane Cossa, Amelia Sorensen (Wherefore Art Thou?)

Best Actor - Michaël Balducchi (A Bad Shag)

During the festival, Rising Star and Industry Excellence Awards were also presented. At the VIP opening  reception at Bel-Air Fine Art Gallery,  Nigel Daly, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and writer-filmmaker Louise Salter were presented with the 2023 Industry Excellence Award, and Armenian American actress/filmmaker/entrepreneur Diana Madison was awarded with the Rising Star prize.  The Industry Excellence Award was also presented to award-winning Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap during the closing gala reception at Eden Hotel & Spa.  Festival attendees and participants included filmmakers, industry executives, celebrities, media and influencers.

Anurag Kashyap, Rehna Azim, Nicole Goesseringer Muj

Nicole Goesseringer Muj, Louise Salter, Vincent De Paul, Nigel Daly

Diana Madison, Nicole Goesseringer Muj

The festival began with a special out-of-competition screening of the Oscar-nominated short Ivalu (Denmark/Greenland), by director Anders Walter, and producers Rebecca Pruzan and Kim Magnusson. Magnusson also received the FRFF Industry Excellence Award in 2022, in recognition of his stellar work in the global film industry. The fest's annual Global Entertainment Showcase held on the morning of May 20th was moderated by Movie Marker Magazine awards editor Rehna Azim, and featured panelists Diana Madison (Diana Madison Productions), Chadwick Pelletier (DaVinci International Film Festival), and Viviane Winthrop (The Last of the Winthrops.)

Event partners included Eden Hotel and Spa, Bel-Air Fine Art, Cindy Shaoul, Chateau de Berne, The Good Gin, Cardinal du Four, VOGA Prosecco, Indie Entertainment Media, SPARQ, filmfestivals.com and Just Cinema.  Gift bag partners include Anais Life, Bionova, Crep Protect, SingleTree Lane, and Velvet Eyewear.

Online festival passes are still available on the SPARQ platform at https://frff.sparqfest.live (*online screenings run from May 19 – June 30, 2023.

FRFF’s Advisory Board includes Michael Benoraya, founder, International Film Trust; Bruno Chatelin, COO, filmfestivals.com (also on festival jury), Emmy Award-winning actor Vincent De Paul; Larry Namer, president/CEO,  Metan Global Entertainment Group, Ana B. Remos, vice president, editorial director & founder, azureazure.com (also on festival jury), Dr. Laura Wilhelm, founder/principal, LauraWil Intercultural (also on festival jury), and Daphna Edwards Ziman, president, Cinémoi USA.  Jury members include Rehna Azim, awards editor, Movie Marker; Lena Basse, journalist, Hollywood Foreign Press Association; Claude Brickell, filmmaker, screenwriter and educator; Anna Marie de la Fuente; James Prestige, publisher, Close-Up Culture; entertainment attorney Tshombe Sampson; Eileen Tasca, managing director, Alien Films & Task Films; and Sue Vicory, founder, Heartland Films and womendocumentaryfilmmakers.com.

Cloud 21 PR International and Kultura PR International have produced numerous industry special events, including the annual “Global Entertainment Showcase” in partnership with ROSKINO during the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film, the annual “Production Without Borders” event during AFM, the annual Indie Entertainment Showcase in Park City, Utah, and “A Salute to Akira Kurosawa” with China’s Jinke Entertainment in Cannes in 2017, plus many others. Most recently, they produced the very successful virtual “3rd Annual Global Entertainment Showcase” held during the online Marché du Film.  The companies have co-produced events and worked with top entertainment and technology brands, including Cinando, Creative Coalition, Davines North America, E! Entertainment Television, ECU Film Festival, Eurocinema, Euromed, FlixSnip, Maverick Entertainment, Metan Global Entertainment Group, Oculus, Sony Interactive, Vesilind, 8K Miles Media Group, FanVestor, plus many others.

Photos/Erick Seban-Meyer for FRFF.  (Poster: Official Artwork by Cindy Shaoul)