CASA CINE 2025

The third edition of the CASA CINE residency, organized by SERENA Productions and La Napoule Art Foundation, took place over three weeks at the Château de la Napoule. Held annually in parallel with Festival de Cannes and designed to support emerging authors as they transition to feature-length projects, the residency once again brought together talented writer-directors and composers and promoted international collaboration around the projects.

Following a call for projects in the autumn of 2024, four screenwriting projects and two film score composition projects were selected out of over 170 applications by a jury of film professionals. The selected residents were: authors Abbas Taheri (Iran), Diogo Salgado (Portugal), Gustavo Bockos (Peru) and Lauriane Lagarde (France), and film score composers Alberto Torres (Spain) and Clémentine Charuel (France).

From May 6 to 27, the selected screenwriters and composers were welcomed in residency at the Château de la Napoule, a few kilometers from Cannes, on the Côte d’Azur in France. The screenwriters were accompanied in the development of their feature projects by two mentors: Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez and French screenwriter and director Julie Lopes-Curval. Meanwhile, the film score composers benefited from a research and creation residency in inspiring seaside workspaces that encouraged exploration and experimentation.

In preparation for the pitch at Festival de Cannes, all the residents were also guided by Anna Glogowski in preparing their presentations, in group and individual sessions.

Throughout the residency, the sharing of daily life at Château de la Napoule enabled a high level of exchange and artistic dialogue, encouraging the creation of professional bonds between the participants. This year, composers Delphine Mantoulet and Julien Vega, members of the CASA CINE jury, came to meet composers Clémentine Charuel and Alberto Torres at Château de la Napoule to discuss their artistic careers and projects.

The residency also brought significant moments of visibility for the selected projects.

Organized with the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the CASA CINE pitch event took place on the 16th of May at the Region Sud Pavilion at Festival de Cannes. Each participant presented their project and professional path to an audience of film industry professionals, among which were producers, distributors, festival representatives and directors. The project pitch was followed by exchanges with the audience over a cocktail dedicated to international coproductions, allowing the resident screenwriters and composers to consider new collaborations and expand their professional networks.

The organization of the residency in parallel with Festival de Cannes also enabled participants to attend several world premiere screenings. CASA CINE residents were able to discover Portuguese director Pedro Pinho's latest film, I Only Rest in the Storm, which premiered in the Un certain regard section, Jafar Panahi's film It Was Just an Accident - which was awarded the Palme d'or at Festival de Cannes, or Tony Gatlif's film Ange, for which Delphine Mantoulet - member of CASA CINE's Composer Jury - composed the music, presented in official competition and preceded by a fantastic concert by Arthur H. at the Cinéma de la Plage. 

Also as part of the festival, the composers were lucky enough to attend an exceptional event organized by SACEM: a masterclass by Guillermo del Toro and Alexandre Desplat.

For the first time, professional meetings were organized on the occasion of the CASA CINE residency at Château de la Napoule by the Côte d'Azur Film Commission, La Napoule Art Foundation, SERENA Productions and Héliotrope.

The program included presentations on filming and creative opportunities in the region, the residency programs and the talents selected for the Résidence du Sud, Récifs and CASA CINE, and a focus on the careers and creative processes of composers Alberto Torres and Clémentine Charuel, in residence at CASA CINE. The event was followed by a cocktail reception, providing a particularly convivial outdoor setting for exchanges and meetings between professionals.

This year, as part of the CASA CINE residency, events for film students and open to the general public were also organized with the Université Côte d'Azur on the Georges Méliès Campus, just a few kilometers from Château de la Napoule.

Resident composers Clémentine Charuel and Alberto Torres led an international workshop as part of the Music Scoring and Sound Design master's program, sharing with students their creative process at various stages of film production.

Also at the Campus Georges Méliès, a CINE-RENCONTRE was organized for a public preview screening of Dans La Peau, the latest feature film by French director and former CASA CINE resident Pascal Tessaud. Dans La Peau has been screened at numerous international film festivals and has already received 20 awards worldwide! The screening was followed by a masterclass with the director, which gave way to lively exchanges with the audience

To finish on a high note, a magical concert of film music, free and open to the public, was organized at the Château de la Napoule, in partnership with the M. G. Art association and the municipality of Mandelieu-la-Napoule. Nearly 300 spectators came to hear the concert and let themselves be transported back in time, lulled by the soundtracks of films that have become cinema classics.

For the writer-directors and film score composers in residence, CASA CINE 2025 offered three weeks of intense artistic exploration, a day-to-day life dedicated entirely to cinema, and a series of remarkable professional encounters! The residents were able to develop their projects in a spirit of shared creativity, and we hope the effervescence of the CASA CINE experience, in the particularly inspiring setting of the Château de la Napoule, will continue to inspire and nurture the artistic careers of this year's selected talents.

The next edition of CASA CINE will take place from May 6 to 29, 2026 at Château de la Napoule: see you in the Fall for the next call for projects!