"THE BOX" by Philippe Marion
"Best Original Screenplay"
THE BOX is a minimalist, metaphysical short set almost entirely in darkness.
Three strangers wake up in a void. They can speak, think and feel fear – but they have no bodies, no past, no explanation. Naming themselves Thomas, Théa and Sophie, they begin to test the limits of this strange space, like prisoners in a contemporary “cave”. As they share fragmentary memories and theories, the void slowly reveals itself: faint scratches in the dark, a distant mechanical sound, a pulse of light.
Piece by piece, they understand that they are not people trapped in a room, but characters trapped in an image – the moving image inside a film reel running through a projector. Realising they are nothing but film images and sound, they must decide what freedom means when their entire existence depends on a fragile beam of light.