“It was so surprising and exciting to hear that it was selected to screen at Cannes!” said director Kyle Laffey (Production – B.A. ‘14) . “I’m always extremely grateful for the opportunity for more people to see my film.”
Fairytale, a short film directed by Laffey, screened at the 2014 Cannes Court Métrage otherwise known as the Cannes Short Film Corner. According to their website the CCM ‘reflects the Festival de Cannes’ desire to develop initiatives, encouraging emerging talents as well as the particular format of short films.’
The premise of Fairytale is described as a tale of two knights battling over a beautiful princess when an unexpected visitor shows up. I asked Laffey what he thought CCM programmers saw in his film to choose it from the myriad of submissions from around the world. “I think what makes Fairytale special is that it’s such a simple and universal story. It’s easy to understand for any culture and any age – there’s no dialogue and the film doesn’t try to jam anything down your throat,” said Laffey. “It’s a fun film that creates a world to which a wide audience can escape.”
Laffey was joined by Justin Small (Screenwriting – B.A. ‘14), Michael De La Torre (Production – B.A. ‘14), Arden Tse (Production – B.A. ‘13) and Siena Oberman (Production – B.A. ‘16, Business Management – B.S. ’16) as the team of SFTV students to work on the film.
“I loved working with our LMU crew! Most of us had worked with each other in the past on shorts and commercials,” said Oberman. “When we were on location in the Ventura mountains everyone came together as a supportive team willing to do whatever it took to wrap in the short weekend we had to shoot.”
According to Laffey, the CCM will not be the last place to screen Fairytale. Indiefix has acquired the short film and will be distributing it worldwide. Until the next film, Laffey is working as the creative director at a social media app company in San Francisco. He says, “It’s the experience of a lifetime.”
Watch Fairytale below:
[youtube id=”t-YT-Dq9nJs”]