Bernardo Leyte Cortés’ graduation film KAI has been nominated for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Short Film at the Paris Play Film Festival.
Kai, the films eponymous hero, lives in a grey, unnamed industrial city by the sea. For two days, the film follows him as he begins to experience powerful episodes and visions of something he doesn’t quite understand, but with which he becomes obsessed. Kai’s fate can only be decided by what he chooses to do next… if he has a choice, that is.
Bernardo is a Spanish-French filmmaker born in Vigo, Spain, who graduated from London Film School in July 2017. He took an interest in the arts, particularly literature and cinema, from an early age and has lived in diverse places across Europe, from Bremen and Hamburg to the south of France and the English Midlands. The film, which Bernardo wrote and directed, was produced and shot in the UK and Spain along with fellow LFS grads Andres Salas Salazar (producer) and Joan Vicente Durà (cinematographer), amongst many others.
Bernardo currently lives in London, where he is developing and writing a feature script with similar themes to his graduation film while also preparing his next short film. Of his time at LFS, he says, “It was a profound formative experience for me. Not only did I learn about filmmaking, but meeting film lovers and filmmakers with a diverse range of tastes and styles was unique. Furthermore, getting to experience a busy cultural life in the centre of London for the last three years has expanded my knowledge and vision about the world and about filmmaking.”
The Paris Play Film Festival is a two-stage process, with the crew going to Paris if KAI becomes a finalist. Good luck and congratulations to the whole team!
LFS crew
Writer-Director: Bernardo Leyte Cortés
Producer: Andres Salas Salazar
Cinematographer: Joan Vicente Durà
Production Designer: Chelsea Gallagher
Sound Recordist - Editor: Yingqing Gong
Camera Assistant: Thomas Rowe
Gaffer: Pierfrancesco Cioffi
Festival Information
The Paris Play Film Festival, currently in its 6th Edition, is an online festival which chooses the best from each year to compete with a screening on the Champs-Elysées at the movie theatre Le Balzac. The festival receives films from all over the world, and its objective is “to mix an interactive talent competition with a human scale quality selection.” Winners receive winning laurels and an official nominative diploma. They accept shorts under 30 min, features under two hours and scripts under 120