Nikon Film Festival--
La Beauté
In January 2026, I was happily graced with the opportunity to story tell, while assisting a friend who desired to create a film entry for the Nikon Film Festival and competition. The theme or topic was La Beauté or Beauty. Alexandre Diaconu, selected the category of International and Episodic film. Each episode or section was allowed to be two minutes a piece, 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 we 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 decisions on who can remain, how they can remain, and where they can remain. For me, from personal experience, humans do not need AI to do this, as we have consistently judged and diminished 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 of a world where socialized injustice exists. The second video is the last in the installment, where our characters journey to the place where the resistance resides and coalesces for strength and decision making.
Please enjoy and consider the film excerpts below...
To view the entire submission, please journey here while it is still available:
https://www.festivalnikon.fr/en/series/2025/93
Special acknowledgements go to:
Alexandre Diaconu--
Directing, Scriptwriter, Casting,
Sound, Editing, Sound Mixing
and Music Scoring
Amaury Sabourin--Director of Photography
Beatriz Drummond-- Emma
Brigitte Louveaux-- Liz
Tim Meyers-- Timothy
Therese Van Elst--Kelly
Alexandre Diaconu--as Adrien
Jan Debski-- Gabriel
and Davy Van Elst