Nikon Film Festival--
La Beauté

In January 2026, I was given the opportunity again, to story tell through acting--something that I truly love to do. Alexandre Diaconu--owner, composer, playwright and artistic director for The New Musical Company, created a film entry for the Nikon Film Festival and competition. The theme or topic presented by the film festival was La Beauté or Beauty. The director chose the category of International and Episodic Film. Each episode or section was allowed to be two minutes long, as opposed to the one film option where the runtime is two minutes in total. This was both an absolute challenge and a great way to discuss the theme in a way that he felt led and all felt meaningful.

Below, is Episode 4 "Permission To Be Born". My character (Kelly) is one of several people who live in a dystopian, "Black Mirror" type world, where beauty standards are a deciding factor for the "have and have nots" or "can nots" and AI makes the cold assessments on who can remain, how they can remain, and where they may remain. The disturbing part from my personal experience, is that humans do not need AI to do this, as we consistently judge and diminish each other through this same ideology. My favorite portion of Episode 4 was when my character decided to push back against an evil and unjust system, instead of acquiescing.  In my thoughts, this is the only way that we will survive and address our ongoing plight in a world where injustice exists. The second video presented is the summation of the installments, where our characters journey to the place where the resistance resides and coalesces for strength and decision making.

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Please enjoy and consider the film excerpts below...

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To view the entire submission, please journey here while it is still available:

https://www.festivalnikon.fr/en/series/2025/93

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Special acknowledgements go to:

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Alexandre Diaconu--

Directing, Scriptwriter, Casting, 

Sound, Editing, Sound Mixing

and Music Scoring

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Amaury Sabourin--Director of Photography 

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In order of performance:

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Beatriz Drummond-- Emma

Brigitte Louveaux-- Liz

Tim Meyers-- Timothy

Therese Van Elst--Kelly

Alexandre Diaconu--as Adrien

Jan Debski-- Gabriel

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Special mention--Davy Van Elst , who assisted as needed with crew

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