Skin: Riti Pan’s clash with TikTok for the independence of the contest jury

From the start, Cannes 2022’s partnership with social media giant TikTok seemed like an inspired, if long overdue, attempt to raise the festival’s relevance among global youth, or a decision that would be the result of some sort of culture shock. Probably both were.

Sponsored by a wide and multifaceted brand, the Cannes-TikTok Acquisition was the theme of this year’s festival thanks to its many components, including 20 influential people from TikTok, to create content about the skin experience, the duration of the programming in the app. A festival and even a 60-minute show that combines pre-recorded content with live red carpet moments.

But the main part of the sponsorship program, ostensibly designed to give Mibma an element of cinematic integrity, was the creation of #TikTokShortFilm, an all-new competition for experienced and emerging filmmakers. The company and the festival organized a competition as a way for users to showcase their filmmaking skills using TikTok’s creative tools and effects to create original 30-second to 3-minute short films that are researched and selected for trophies. Illustrious jury. The Palme d’Or was not awarded, but festival director Thierry Fremo has confirmed that he will be ready to hand out the awards in the Grand Prix, Best Screenplay and Best Editing categories.

The cinematic goodwill of the new event was reinforced by the announcement that Oscar-nominated filmmaker Riti Panh, 2013 Un Certain Regard winner and 2019 Golden Camera jury leader, will head the #TikTokShortFilm’s first jury. . Later, filmmakers Camille Dussellier, Bass Khalifa and Angel Diabang were added to the jury along with TikTok star Xabi Lame.

Before the skin said Pan hollywood reporter Who “did not hesitate to say ‘yes’ when he was invited to preside over the jury because Cannes’ participation told him that ‘there would be a cinema at the center of the project'”. He was also encouraged by Eric Garando, former president of France’s National Film Council (CNC) and now head of public affairs for TikTok in France, who joined the jury because he is a “true filmmaker”. According to Pan. The filmmaker also expressed his admiration for the prospect of bridging the gap between cinema and the world’s fastest-growing short-video platform, saying that “it would be a mistake not to reach global youth” by interacting with them through their own favorites. “Creative tools and methods of expression”.

However, on Thursday, the new competition began dramatically, as the Pan approached THR Saying he resigned after disagreeing with TikTok over the competition’s artistic integrity. According to Panh, TikTok executives repeatedly tried to interfere with the jury’s deliberations and even replaced some shorts selected by the jury as winners with alternative titles that favored TikTok.

“I tried to explain that this is not good,” Panh said. “If they want to do their marketing, fine, but if they say it’s a real film competition, the independence and sovereignty of the jury must be protected.”

However, Panh initially offered a compromise. “I wanted to move forward in peace and celebrate the film, and I still believed in the project idea,” he said. “So I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to get what I could never have imagined, but we’re going to reward the two best films’: what we chose and what they wanted.” We talked a lot about it, but in the end everyone agreed.”

However, TikTok later contacted Panh and told him that the film, chosen by the jury as the winner, violated certain conditions of the competition and would require disqualification. Pan responded that the jury would have to reconvene to select a major new title, but TikTok rejected this, saying that “there were no more changes” and that there would only be one winner: the short chosen by TikTok.

And that’s when Panh refused to leave. “I decided to quit my job to say that the independence of the film industry must be respected,” he said. “So I hope they do a better job if it continues like this next year.”

He adds: “They need to know that an artistic jury is a jury, not an algorithm.”

Pan says she wrote to Cano’s boss Fremo to tell him about her decision. Fremo responded by saying, “Well, if that’s the case, he made the right decision defending his jury,” according to Panh. The director says he also expressed his regret to the jurors and asked them to simply follow their own feelings when it comes to the situation. Pan said he hoped the competition would continue without him.

A TikTok representative did not respond. THRAsk for a comment and the Cannes Film Festival too. However, in an interview on Wednesday with UK and EU TikTok General Manager Rich Waterworth, he noted that film competition was an important part of the festival’s partnership. “We had an amazing relationship with each other. [festival submissions] – More than four billion views of videos submitted as part of the competition.

Thursday night then THRIn a post about Panh’s feuds with TikTok, the director said he was contacted by the social media giant via total capitulation and promised, once again, that its jury would have full sovereignty and independence in choosing which winning film would win.

“The TikTok Short Film Festival now recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the jury,” he said. “So, I’ll be happy to meet TikTok’s winning creators at the awards ceremony.” He adds, “I still strongly believe in the idea of ​​connecting with young people and exploring the storytelling potential of the TikTok platform.”