At a stunning seafront location and a marina filled with superyachts just a stone’s throw from the stage, TikTok handed out four trophies Friday afternoon to close out its first-ever #TikTokShortFilm competition in Cannes.
A casual observer sitting through the nearly one-hour program inside L’Ecrin — a key part of the social platform’s official partnership with this year’s Cannes Film Festival — never would’ve known the rollercoaster of the past 24 hours. Jury president Rithy Panh resigned citing issues with integrity only to rejoin the competition hours later.
None of the drama spilled out on stage where two Grand Prix trophies were handed out — one to creator Mabuta Motoki for his Is it Okay to Chop Down Trees? and another to Matej Rimanic for his Love in Plane Sight. Meanwhile, best editing went to Tim Hamilton and best script to Claudia Cochet.
Mabuta said his work, about a skilled Japanese woodworker, carried a message of environmentalism by encouraging people to keep objects that have been made by someone’s hands. “I also really wanted to incorporate the rhythmic beauty of chopping and shaving trees,” he said through a translator. The film can be found on his Lang Pictures account.
Rimanic, whose romantic work followed two prospective lovers communicating across balconies, thanked his neighbors for allowing him to use their space last-minute after five other scripts and problems securing locations popped up with just a week before the deadline. “They are always down to make a movie with me,” he said of his neighbor couple.
Marlene Masure, TikTok’s general manager of France and Benelux, kicked off the ceremony by addressing the seated audience of press, creators and TikTok insiders. She doubled down on the platform’s passion for film and creativity and extended her gratitude to Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux, who had been confirmed to attend but was absent from the show. She also thanked the Cannes mayor and called out the city’s school system for actively participating in the program.
Masure cited several impressive statistics for #TikTokShortFilm competition by noting how 44 countries participated and how the submissions received 4.5 billion views around the world. “For this content, that’s huge, that’s massive,” she said. “TikTok is a great platform to tell stories and create emotions,” she said.
Though she never addressed the controversy, Masure did mention “passionate discussions” on the jury, whom she praised as talented. The company and the festival designed the competition as a way for users to show off their cinematography skills through TikTok’s creative tools and effects in the creation of original shorts, 30 seconds to 3 minutes long, that would then be surveyed and selected for trophies by a distinguished jury.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Panh, a winner of Un Certain Regard’s top film prize in 2013 and the onetime head of the Camera d’Or jury, would preside over the TikTok jury alongside superstar Khaby Lame, Camille Ducellier, Basma Khalifa and Angele Diabang.
On Thursday, the new competition began to unravel dramatically, however, when Panh reached out to THR to say that he had quit his post after a disagreement with TikTok over the competition’s artistic integrity. According to Panh, TikTok executives repeatedly tried to meddle in the jury’s deliberations and even replaced some of the shorts the jury had selected as winners with alternate titles preferred by TikTok.
Initially, though, Panh proposed a compromise. “I wanted to move forward peacefully and to just celebrate film — and I still believed in the idea of the project,” he says. “So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll accept something I never imagined, but let’s award two best films’ — the one we picked and the one they wanted. We discussed this a lot, but eventually, everyone agreed to that.”
Later, however, TikTok reached out to Panh to say that the film the jury had selected as its winner had violated some of the terms of the competition and would need to be disqualified. Panh replied that the jury would then have to reconvene to pick a new top title, but TikTok rebuffed him, saying “no more changes” and that there would be just one winner — the short picked by TikTok.
Late Thursday night, following THR‘s publication of Panh’s struggles with TikTok, the director reached out to say that the social media giant had contacted him with a total capitulation, promising — again — that his jury would have complete sovereignty and independence to pick whatever winning films it liked.
“The TikTok Short Film Festival now recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the jury,” he said. “And so it will be my pleasure to meet, after all, the winning TikTok creators at the award ceremony.” He adds: “I still really believe in the idea of connecting with young people and exploring the narrative storytelling potential of TikTok’s platform.”
TikTok said in a statement: “As with any creative competition where the selection of a winner is open to subjective interpretation, there may be differences of artistic opinion from the independent panel of judges. We are looking forward to the award ceremony we’re organizing this afternoon in Cannes to celebrate the amazing talents that have won this competition.”
Pithy never mentioned the controversy during the Q&A portion of the program, sections of which can be seen below.
Rithy Panh adds that he thinks content that runs 1 min, 3 mins, 1hr-plus can be considered films. ‘Sometimes a 3-min film can be beautiful’ and long enough to tell a story. #TikTokShortFilm pic.twitter.com/Cmue96T3hI
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) May 20, 2022
Jury prez Rithy Panh doesn’t address controversy of resigning and rejoining competition over integrity disagreements but does say he learned a lot in process and it was “an amazing experience” to watch the creative content. pic.twitter.com/VctyGbola3
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) May 20, 2022
Khaby Lame asked for reax to #TikTokShortFilm submissions and says he’s very happy to participate and check out comedy, sad stories and see the variety of videos. “Peace and love.” ✌???? pic.twitter.com/2I4U6UUCg3
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) May 20, 2022