Coquille
2026 · 2m
Directed by Félix Chouteau
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, whimsical
Deborah has just arrived in a new city where everything feels foreign, as if on an unknown planet facing a hostile universe — until a mysterious shell found in a packet of noodles pushes her to go out and discover the beauty around her.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A shell in a noodle packet as the hinge of an entire emotional awakening—sure, it's whimsical, but Chouteau's refusal to explain the magic or justify the metaphor actually works against the expected indie-film-does-wonder formula.
Coquille positions itself in the lineage of contemplative magical realism, though the two-minute constraint feels like it denies the formal rigor the premise deserves—a short that hints at something more architecturally ambitious than it permits itself to build.
The decision to anchor the entire narrative on the tactile discovery of a single found object—and let that moment of touching something strange be enough to reorient a character's entire sensory relationship to her surroundings—is the kind of economical storytelling choice that makes two minutes feel like a complete emotional experience.