THÉORÈME DE
2026 · 2m
Directed by Pierre Vassal
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic
In a great Parisian university, Maryam, a brilliant student, discovers a theorem. While her professor is overwhelmed by the scope of her find, the dean sees an opportunity to shine.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A two-minute satire about academic credit-stealing doesn't sound like much, but Vassal's refusal to make Maryam's genius the point—instead zeroing in on institutional mechanics and ego—is genuinely subversive; most filmmakers would've gone sentimental.
Théorème de understands itself as a descendant of Buñuel and Tati, using the formal constraints of the university setting and the razor-sharp economy of two minutes to stage a critique that feels both timely and formally considered—the restraint is the whole argument.
What lifts this from sketch to film is the decision to keep Maryam herself almost expressionless while everyone else around her performs their ambitions; that single tonal choice turns a predictable premise into something that actually stings.