Gilles Jacob and Pierre Viot created the Cinéfondation in 1998 with the intent of sniffing out upcoming talent. This official selection of movies from film schools has been presented each year at the Festival ever since. On the program, 18 films from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia were selected from among the 1,200 submitted.
Jury President Edward Yang was accompanied by Chantal Akerman, Sylvie Testud, Colin MacCabe and Yousry Nasrallah in making the prize-winning decisions:

1st Prize:
- Buy It Now by Antonio Campos, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, USA

2nd Prize ex-aequo:
- Vdvoyom (A Deux) by Nikolay Khomeriki, La Fémis, France
- Bikur Holim (Visiting Hours) by Maya Dreifuss, Tel Aviv University, Israel

3rd Prize ex-aequo:
- La Plaine by Roland Edzard, Le Fresnoy, France
- Be Quiet by Sameh Zoabi, Columbia University, USA