NEW FACE
2026 · 2m
Directed by Alexandre Saltiel
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Mathilde goes through interviews with modeling agencies, and when she no longer needs to please, she feels beautiful.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise sounds like a Vogue fever dream until you realize the film is actually dismantling the whole validation machinery—but Saltiel doesn't give you the cathartic revenge beat you'd expect, which is exactly why it works.
A formally economical study in the space between performance and self, positioned squarely in the lineage of Kechiche and Sciamma's examinations of female interiority; the restraint is the composition.
Two minutes, no flourish, and the entire film hinges on Mathilde's face the moment she stops auditioning—the decision to hold that shot and let the camera become passive rather than evaluative is what transforms a concept into something alive.