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60th Semaine de la Critique are now open.
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For the 2021 edition, Charles Tesson, the artistic director will be in the company of selection committees for short and feature films, composed of critics and journalists members of the French Union of Film Critics. The feature film committee is made of Ava Cahen (Frenchmania), Clémentine Dramani-Issifou (Frenchmania), Miquel Escudero Diéguez (SoFilm), Pauline Mallet (Sorociné) and Olivier Pélisson (Bande à Part). The short film committee, as always, lead by Léo Soesanto (Le Cercle), is composed of Marilou Duponchel (Les Inrocks), Marie-Pauline Mollaret (Écran Noir) and Nanako Tsukidate (Nobody Magazine). Thomas Rosso, Program Manager, Hélène Auclaire, Head of the Film Department and Rémi Bigot, in charge of short films, follow up on current productions and relations between professionals.
Charles Tesson
Artistic Director
As film critic, Charles Tesson wrote several important books on cinema and he is a senior lecturer in Film History and Aesthetics at La Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III). He has wrote for many years for Les Cahiers du Cinéma, where he was the editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2003. He entered the Selection Committee of La Semaine de la Critique for the 49th and 50th editions, before becoming its Artistic Director in April 2011. Since 2016, He is also the President of the Aide aux Cinéma du Monde commission (CNC, French Institute).
Feature films
Ava Cahen
A lecturer at Nanterre University for seven years, a commentator for the TV programme Le Cercle on Canal+ Cinéma and the radio programme Une Heure de séries on France Inter, Ava has written several books and essays [Woody Allen : profession cynique (Woody Allen: professional cynic), Cheforama, la gastronomie au cinéma (Cheforama, cuisine in films), Game of Thrones décodé (Game of Thrones decrypted)]. Former chief editor of Clap! (from 2014 to 2016) - a magazine about films and series -, she is one of the creators of the frenchmannia.fr website, and its co-chief editor. In 2020, Ava and her team wrote the first issue of FrenchMania, published by Le Rocher; a biannual publication that provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary French cinema.
Clémentine Dramani Issifou
F. Clémentine Dramani-Issifou is an independent film curator, researcher and critic. Between 2010 and 2017, she launched and ran the New Film Documentaries Festival (Paris, Porto Novo, Lome, Phnom Penh). Since 2016 she has been taking part in curating residences and initiating projetcs around research, film programming and contemporary art. She recently published critical essays such as Mille Soleils de Mati Diop, une esthétique de l’interstice, in Dix films d’Afrique (published by L’Harmattan, 2019), Musique et cinéma, in Africa in Music published by Duta, 2018) and joined the team of Frenchmania magazine.
Photo © Elise Ortiou Campion
Miquel Escudero Diéguez
Journalist and cinema programmer, his articles have been published in magazines such SoFilm, Dirigido Por and Caimán Cuadernos de Cine. He is a programmer at the Belfort Entrevues Festival and at Chinechilex (Chilean film directors association), where he works with director Pamela Varela. He is also the representative and curator of the avant-garde film directors collective Obscuritads.
© photo : Laura Wencker
Pauline Mallet
After studying film, Pauline Mallet became a film critique. She has worked for various outlets such as Konbini, Rockyrama and CinéSéries - where she was able to sharpen her writing skills by analysing series. In 2018, she created a podcast, Sorociné where she sheds light on women in film both on and behind the camera. She is currently writing an essay on the relationship between mainstream cinema and the depiction of women.
Olivier Pélisson
Film critic and journalist, he is currently writing for Bande à Part and Bref. Olivier has collaborated with Zurban, Monsieurcinéma.com, DvdLive and LeCinémadanslesyeux.com and Canal+ Top of the Shorts. Over the years, he has worked as a festival programmer (Paris Film Festival), script reader (France 2 Cinema, CNC), criticism workshop facilitator (Paris, Cannes, Bakouriani, Erevan), and jury member at festivals and for the French Union of Film Critics. He is one of the contributors to the Dictionnaire Eustache, published by Léo Scheer publishing.
Short films
Léo Soesanto
Coordinateur
Journalist and film critic, Léo is a columnist for Libération, he was also published in Les Inrockuptibles, Grazia, Men’s Vogueand Premiere, to name but a few. He is also a commentator in Le CercleCinémaon Canal Plus Cinéma. He was the head programmer of the Bordeaux International Festival of Independent Films (FIFIB) between 2012 and 2018, and a feature film programmer for the Rotterdam Film Festival between 2016 and 2020. He also collaborated in programming for the Geneva, Utrecht and Valencia festivals. He was a member of the La Semaine de la Critique’s feature film selection committee for six years (2009-2011, 2013-2015). He has written a book on the depiction of airports in films that will be published in 2021.
Marilou Duponchel
Film journalist and critic for Les Inrockuptibles,and since recently for the magazine TROISCOULEURS, Marilou Duponchel is also a programmer at the Inrock’s "Ciné-Court" film-club that organises a monthly short-film screening at the Entrepôt cinema in the 14th arrondissement in Paris.
Marie-Pauline Mollaret
Journalist and film critic, Marie-Pauline Mollaret is the editor-in-chief of the web magazine EcranNoir.fr and also contributes to several specialised magazines, such as Bref and L'Avant-scène Cinéma. In 2019, She also took part in the selection committee of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival as well as the preselection committee for animated films of the César Academy.
Nanako Tsukidate
Nakano Tsukidate is a film critic and journalist, working primarily for Japan’s Nobody Magazine. She is also a programmer for Hiroshima International Festival, where she deals specifically with European cinema. She has organised several retrospectives around French cinema, for instance screening films produced by Diagonale, Henri Langlois, Mai 68 and the Zanzibar group. She also collaborated with T-Mobile New Horizons International Festival for a Philippe Garrel retrospective in 2015.