Compiled by Shaibu Husseini

Winners Of Cannes Festival’s Short Film, Immersive Competition Emerge
The Short Films and La Cinef Jury presided by Carla Simón and comprising  Ali Asgari, Salim Kechiouche , Ji-MinPark and Magnus von Horn has awarded the 2026 La Cinef Prizes during a ceremony held in Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films. La Cinef consisted of 19 student films, chosen out of 2 747 films submitted from 662 film schools around the world. First prize went to Laser-Gato (Laser-Cat) directed by Lucas Acher (NYU, USA) while the second prize was awarded to Silent Voices by Nadine Misong Jin (Columbia University, USA).

The third prize was a joint winning and it went to Aldrig Nok (Never Enough) directed by Julius Lagoutte Larsen (La Femis, France) and Growing Stones, Flying Papers directed Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi (Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Germany). The Festival de Cannes allocates a €15,000 grant for the First Prize, €11,000 for the Second and €7,500 for the Third. The awarded films will be screened at the Cinéma du Panthéon on Tuesday June 2 at 6 p.m. In the meantime, the The Jury of the Immersive Competition of the 79th Festival de Cannes awarded the Best Immersive Work Award to Katàbasis, created by Ugo Arsac at the Plage des Palmes. The Jury also awarded a Special Jury Mention to The Black Mirror Experience, created by David Bardos and Damià Ferràndiz. The Jury was chaired by Franco-Spanish artistic director Blanca Li and included French director Céline Tricart, Dutch composer and director Michel van der Aa, English director and producer Mary Matheson, and Taiwanese director Hsin-Chien Huang.

“Katàbasis is a magnificent immersive work, deeply human, authentic and emotionally powerful, that allows us to reconnect with what binds together seemingly ordinary human beings,” said Blanca Li, Immersive Competition Jury President. Returning for its third edition, the Immersive Competition was hosted at the Carlton Hotel, welcoming up to 200 guests per showcase and generated over 3,000 bookings throughout the festival. This year’s official Immersive selection featured nine works in competition, from 8 countries. For further information on the films, visit the Festival de Cannes office website: www.festival-cannes.com.
Hot Docs Releases Lineup For June Hot Docs Cinema

THE excitement of this year’s Hot Docs Festival carries on as Hot Docs Cinema releases its lineup of programming for June, bringing some extra special events and guests, returning series and Festival favourites to the historic movie theatre at 506 Bloor Street. Highlights of June’s programming include the return of Pride Projected with three Pride Month events hosted by local film lovers and makers, the four-week Curious Minds lecture series Toronto: Cinema City, and several special guests in attendance to introduce films or participate in post-screening questions and answers Pride Projected is back with three special events hosted by some of our favourite local queer film icons. We asked Michelle Mama, Saffron Maeve and Peter Knegt for some non-fiction queer cinema of their choosing and invited them to bring it to the main stage to share with Hot Docs audiences throughout Pride Month. Critic, editor, and film curator Saffron Maeve presents Shades of Feeling: Five by Pratibha Parmar, a collection of five shorts by British filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, released from 1988-1991.

Hot Docs 2026 Opening Night filmmaker Michelle Mama (Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions) presents a film about another legendary queer icon (one with a curious Carole connection): Jeffrey Schwarz’s I Am Divine, the “divinative” story of John Waters’ Dreamlanders diva Divine. To open the series, writer, broadcaster and Queer Cinema Club curator Peter Knegt presents one of his all-time favourite documentaries, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s The Celluloid Closet, assembled using fabulous footage from 120 films to show the changing face of cinema sexuality. For more information on Pride Projected, presented in partnership with Inside Out,

Pitcher Festival Unveils New Talent Development Partnership
THE Pitcher Festival of Creativity is pleased to announce a new talent-development partnership with Out There Media (OTM), a global leader in data-driven rich messaging and mobile advertising technology. Through this collaboration, OTM will offer internship opportunities to winners of the Future Pitcher Competition, the culminating challenge of the Future Pitcher Student Academy (FPSA). FPSA, now in its 19th year, is the entry point into Africa’s creative industry pipeline, introducing outstanding students to creativity, strategy, storytelling, cultural insight, and collaboration. The programme concludes with the Future Pitcher Competition, where top-performing students are recognized as emerging creative leaders. As part of its commitment to nurturing young talent across the continent, Out There Media will provide selected winners with remote internship placements across several African markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast.

Interns will gain hands-on experience in areas such as ad operations, creative digital development, digital trading, account management, and sales. OTM will also provide a monthly stipend to support participants during the internship period. This collaboration strengthens the bridge between education and industry practice, offering young creatives the opportunity to work on real campaigns for global brands and mobile operators while learning directly from industry experts. The Pitcher Festival celebrates this partnership as a meaningful step toward expanding career pathways for Africa’s next generation of creative professionals. For more information about FPSA, visit www.pitcherfestival.com/fpsa.