Rotimi Ige
TikTok, the world’s leading destination for short-form mobile videos, have announced the next chapter of its partnership with Festival de Cannes 2023 with the launch of the second edition of the #TikTokShortFilm competition.
From March 6 to 29, TikTok invites creators in Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world to register through the official form to create and share their own short-form films, using the hashtag #TikTokShortFilm.
From 40 shortlisted videos with the highest number of views and engagement, a highly-acclaimed jury will select winners across three categories: ‘Grand Winner’, ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best Direction’, and will be invited by TikTok to the 76th edition of the Festival de Cannes to present their work and receive their prize. The grand winner will receive a cash prize of €10,000, while winners of the ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best Direction’ categories will receive €5,000 each to support their next creative projects.
Launched for the first time in 2022, the #TikTokShortFilm competition brought together emerging and experienced filmmakers as they showcased their skills through TikTok’s wide range of creative tools and bringing their stories to life in new and authentic ways.
Garnering almost 10 billion views, the first edition of #TikTokShortFilm highlighted four creators with very distinct styles, who embody the diversity of the TikTok community which are Grand Prix: Kitte kitte iino (Japan) by Mabuta Motoki (@lang_pictures); Grand Prix: Love In Plane Sight (Slovenia) by Matej Rimanic (@rimanic), Slovenia; Best Edit: Zero Gravity (New Zealand) by Tim Hamilton (@tim.diddle); Best Script: Modern Princess (France) by Claudia Cochet (@claudia_cochet).
Claudia Cochet, the winner of the ‘Best Script‘ award with her activist film ‘Modern Princess’, which denounces violence against women, shares how joining the competition helped her find more opportunities across the industry. “Winning the ‘Best Script’ award not only gave me confidence as a writer-director but also gave me credibility in the film industry. I have been able to direct and write for large groups on TikTok, and I have recently co-written two feature films thanks to the visibility that the award has given me. Since then, I’ve also directed the pilot of a series that I’m now looking to produce and have been invited to many short film festivals to talk about my experience as a director on platforms, all thanks to TikTok,” she said.
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