The director Michel Hazanavicius to present his first animated film at SEMINCI

• In The Most Precious of Cargoes, the Oscar winner for The Artist tells a tender story of compassion and hope in the context of the Holocaust
• Michel Hazanavicius will be in Valladolid on 25 and 26 October 2024

Valladolid, 22 October 2024. French actor and film director Michel Hazanavicius will present his first foray into animation, The Most Precious of Cargoes, on 26 October at the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival (SEMINCI). The filmmaker, who achieved international recognition in 2011 when he won five Oscars, including Best Film, with The Artist , is taking part in the Official Section out of competition with a feature-length animated film that contrasts human compassion with the horror of the concentration camps.

The film, based on a novel by Jean-Claude Grumbert, follows a couple of lumberjacks as they meet a baby thrown from a train in the snow. ‘The most precious of cargoes’ will transform their lives, including that of the man who threw her off the train, revealing the best and the worst of the human heart.

The music of Alexandre Desplat (Oscar for The Artist) and the voice of Jean-Louis Trintignant embellish this story of compassion in the face of adversity, which is aimed at 16+ and distributed in Spain by Bteams Pictures.

Michel Hazanavicius (Paris, 1967) has been working in film, television and radio since 1988. He debuted as a director in 1999 with the film Mes Amis and achieved popularity in France with the comedies OSS 117: Cairo, nest of spies (2006) and OSS 117: lost in Rio (2009). 2011 was the year of his consolidation with the silent film The Artist, starring his wife, Bérénice Bejo.

In 2017 he created his own production company, Les Compagnons du Cinéma, with which he has released his latest projects, which have participated in the Cannes Film Festival: Godard Mon Amour, based on a sentimental and professional chapter of the biography of the nouvelle vague film director Jean-Luc Godard, and the cinephile zombie comedy The Most Precious of Cargoes: A Tale being his latest work, and his first in animation. Since 2019, he has also chaired the Governing Council of La Fémis, France’s national film school.

Press schedule at SEMINCI

Press screening (accredited press access only): 26 October, 9:00 a.m. Zorrilla Theatre

Press conference: 26 October, 11 a.m., Salón de los espejos, Calderón Theatre

More information:

Interview request: entrevistas@seminci.com