Le Gâteau
2026 · 2m
Directed by Malu França
For little Simon's birthday, his aunt Alice has promised a beautiful cake; her sister Martine keeps up the pressure, and on the day of the party, a great deal is at stake.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A two-minute family drama about cake anxiety is exactly the kind of premise that sounds like nothing—until you realize it's actually a pressure cooker about obligation, disappointment, and what we owe each other; França threads a needle most filmmakers wouldn't even see.
The film's restraint recalls a particular lineage of European domestic cinema—Koreeda-adjacent in its attention to unstated emotional stakes—where the formal decision to keep the camera close and the runtime punishing forces every gesture to mean something.
It's the sound design that does it: the way the ambient hum of the party shifts when Martine enters, a single sonic choice that tells you everything about family dynamics without a word being spoken.