For those of us in the film industry, the month of May has always been synonymous with the Cannes International Film Festival. This year’s festival, the 69th since its inception, will run from May 11-22nd, with Woody Allen’s Café Society being its opening film.
In more recent years, part of the prestigious festival is the Cinéfondation, which selects some of the best short films from young filmmakers around the country. This highly competitive competition is often the goal of many of our students and graduates. This year, the New York Film Academy proudly recognizes Malena Vain, who studied at our 8-Week Screenwriting Workshop in 2014. Vain’s short film, Business, is an official selection in the Cinéfondation.
The Short Films Jury—presided over by Japanese director and writer Naomi Kawase, as well as Marie-Josée Croze, Jean-Marie Larrieu, Radu Muntean and Santiago Loza—will be awarding prizes for three of the 18 student films shown as part of the Cinéfondation selection. The jury must also name the Short Film Palme d’or winner from among the 10 “In Competition” films selected. This will be awarded at the closing ceremony of the “69th Festival de Cannes” on Sunday, May 22nd.
We had the opportunity to ask Ms. Vain a few questions about her and Business before she heads off to Cannes.
Can you tell us a little bit about your film, Business — what is about?
A girl, alongside her guitar, reunites with her father in a hotel room. He’s a business man on a visit to Argentina, the country he once called home. She’s back from playing at a concert. Night falls between those four white walls, until the sun rises again.
Where did the idea for this film derive from?
It was slowly cooking for a couple of years. I first saw a site-specific type of a play called “Showcase,” by Richard Maxwell, which was staged in an actual hotel room. You were literally told to enter the room and sit there, while a man would perform the play. From then on, I was instantly attracted to the feeling of the hotel room, and its potential to create stories. These rooms are set in a way to make you feel comfortable, warm and safe, but in reality they’re also really impersonal and empty spaces. However, in a way, those places make you feel like nothing but who you are. The world is fast and chaotic outside, but inside the hotel room, time stops for you.
Once I got this straight, I also had two characters I wanted to explore. I thought it would be interesting to make them meet in this type of space, after a long time.
BUSINESS (2016) – TRAILER from Malena Vain on Vimeo.
Would you say your experience at NYFA was useful in terms of writing and directing this film?
Yes, for sure. My screenwriting skills definitely improved at NYFA. I had never had such intensive writing workshops or full knowledge of classical structures to generate conflicts and transform characters. It’s not easy. At first, you are really conscious of these tools and try hard to follow the rules, but then you let go and just write. Ben Maraniss, one of my teachers at NYFA, would ask us to write twenty pages in two or three days — it sounded impossible, but it really isn’t. As Kate Kirtz used to say, when you have a deadline there is no time for creative blocking. Eventually you incorporate what you learn in class and don’t feel so stressed out about finishing a script. If you keep your enthusiasm up, you will write something you can be proud of—even though you’ll always find mistakes—because you’re human and creativity is never perfect (and it shouldn’t). I’m also trying to refresh the pitching skills I learned with Nick Yellen, since I’m only two weeks away from Cannes Film Festival, those could be really useful now!
Is your feature screenplay related to this film or another idea?
Not really. However, I’d say they have similar topics in common. I’m really interested in distance between humans, and all problems regarding communication to bond with someone, especially in a time where our virtual selves are so present and our real selves are so concerned about our virtual selves. It’s hard to connect to what you really feel and what you really want. In my screenplays the question usually is: “Who would you like to share your time with?”
I’m also fascinated about cities, and that love-hate relationship you have with the place you live in. My NYFA script was set in New York, and the city played an important role to make the story move forward, even with the obstacles. Business, even though it’s mainly about a father-daughter relationship in contemporary life, also talks about life in my hometown, Buenos Aires.
Business will be screening on Friday, May 20 at 11:00a.m. (Cinéfondation programme 4) in Buñuel Theatre on the 5th floor of the Palais des Festivals.