Festival Season:
January 2026
CONSCIOUSNESS AND SCIENCE
Directors:
Writers:
Jacques-hervé Fichet, Elisabeth Loesch
Producers:
Jacques-hervé Fichet, Elisabeth Loesch
Run Time:
1:37:12
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
When filmmaker Jacques-Hervé Fichet loses his best friend to a sudden heart attack, a series of chance encounters draw him into one of humanity’s greatest enigmas: the origin of consciousness.
Alongside Élisabeth Loesch, he travels from intimate testimonies of near death experiences, then meets with some of the world’s most brilliant minds, including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose, neurologists Steven Laureys and Charlotte Martial, and psychiatrist Christophe Fauré.
Blending science, philosophy, and human emotion, this documentary is both an investigation and an inner journey, searching for answers to the question: does consciousness come from the brain… or beyond?
Submitter Statement
An author, screenwriter and director, she trained with renowned masters of cinema and dramaturgy, notably at Harvard, the Raindance Film Centre in London, the DreamAgo Foundation in Switzerland, and with David Seidler, Stephen Frears, Yves Lavandier and Robert McKee.
She is the author of a collection of short stories (Petits riens, grands effets, 2025) and several novels, including Le chef d'orchestre (2023) and Le Trou Noir, winner of the 2020 Stardust Masterclass competition. She has also written four feature films, several short films, a musical, and a play that was a finalist in the Write Brothers competition. In 2025, she also published a comic book (Johnny be dead).
As a director, she has directed several short films, including Pour ne pas t'oublier, selected for seven international festivals, as well as a music video for Barack Obama's campaign. She also co-directed a documentary, Conscience et Science.
Her work has received numerous awards, including the Best Novel Award (Stardust Masterclass 2020), an Award of Excellence at the La Jolla Best Short Competition (2015), the DreamAgo Best Screenplay Award (2012) and an Audience Award at the Red Wasp Film Festival (2011).
She also pursues innovative creative projects, such as a short film shot remotely during lockdown between Geneva and Los Angeles.
Key Cast
Other Credits