Jury president
Sylvie Pialat
France
Sylvie Pialat co-wrote several films directed by her husband, Maurice Pialat, including Police and Van Gogh; she also wrote the adaptation of Georges Bernanos’ novel Under the Sun of Satan (Palme d’Or - Cannes 1987). After Maurice Pialat’s death in 2003, after 21 years living and making films together, she created Les films du Worso.
In 20 years, Sylvie Pialat has produced over fifty feature films, working with directors from all over the world, such as Guillaume Nicloux, Alain Guiraudie, Joachim Lafosse, Abderrahmane Sissako, Julie Gavras, Franco Lolli, Aude Léa Rapin, Céline Devaux, Cédric Kahn, Xavier Beauvois, Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine, as well as Corneliu Porumboiu. Over twenty films have been selected in Cannes, and two received Oscars nominations: Timbuktu (International Feature, 2015) and Robot Dreams (Animated Feature, 2024).
After being the President of the Côté Court Film Festival in Pantin (Paris region) from 2006 to 2015, she was made Honorary President. Two years in a row - in 2014 and 2015 - she was awarded a Daniel Toscan du Plantier Prize for Best Producer by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma (César).
©David Balicki
Jury members
Ben Croll
Canada
Ben Croll is a Canadian critic and journalist based in Paris. He writes about film as an and art and industry for the U.S. trades and covers cinema, theatre and contemporary art as a roving critic in broadcast and print. He is an on-air contributor to France24 and author of The Art of Eric Guillon
©Elena Fusco
Iris Kaltenbäck
France
Iris Kaltenbäck grew up in France, with a French mother, Austrian father and American half-brother. After studying law and philosophy, she joined the screenplay department at the Fémis film school and assisted director Declan Donnellan at Théâtre Les Gémeaux (Scène nationale).
In 2015, she directed her first short, A Visit from the Stork, winner of the Next Generation International Audience Award at the Brussels Short Film Festival.
Her first feature, The Rapture, was selected for La Semaine de la Critique in 2023, where it received the SACD Prize. Presented at numerous international festivals (Zürich, Ghent, Morelia, São Paolo, Hamburg, among others), it won several awards, including the Special Jury Prize in Turin. In France, where it was very well received, The Rapture, won the Louis-Delluc Prize for Best First Feature and was nominated for the César Award for Best First Film.
©Aurélie Lamachère
Virginie Surdej
Belgium, Poland
Virginie Surdej is a Belgian-Polish cinematographer, based in Brussels. She works in all four corners of the earth, wherever films take her.
Her career started with documentaries, working as the director of photography on films such as Transnistria by Anna Eborn, and By the Name of Tania by Bénédicte Liénard and Mary Jimenez.
Her work with narrative films includes: Insyriated by Philippe Van Leeuw, Luka by Jessica Woodworth, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Saddat’s Wolf and Sheep and The Orphanage (both screened at the Directors’ Fortnight), and Our Mothers by Belgian-Guatemalan director César Díaz, which was screened at La Semaine de la Critique in 2019 and won the Caméra d’Or.
For many years, she has been working with French-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch, collaborating on Razzia, Much Loved (Directors' Fortnight), Casablanca Beats (Cannes Film Festival Official Selection - 2021), and Maryan Touzani, on Adam and The Blue Caftan, both screened at Un Certain Regard.
Eliane Umuhire
Rwanda
Eliane EMUHRE is a Rwandan actor and director, living in France. Her artistic journey has led her to explore identity, memory, and resilience.
Her work as an actress drew attention in films presented in prestigious film festivals where she won several awards, including her interpretation in Polish directors Krzystof KRAUZE’s & Joanna KOS’s BIRDS ARE SINGING IN KIGALI, for which she won awards in festivals such as Chicago International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, The Polish Film Festival, The New York Polish Film Festival, Vienna’s Let’s CEE Festival, and the Mastercard Rising Star Award at the Netia Off Camera Independent Film Festival.
Her recent projects include Baloji’s film AUGURE, winner of the Un Certain Regard competition of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Saul WILLIAMS’ NEPTUNE FROST, Screened at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2021, Netflix’s TREES OF PEACE directed by Alanna BROWN, as well as the BAFTA-winning short film BAZIGAGA, directed by Moys INGABIRE, for which she won the award for best actress at the Clermont-Ferrand international short-film festival, and at the Namur French-speaking film festival.
On TV Eliane UMUHIRE plays in DE GRACE, a series broadcast on Arte.
She is soon to star in PLANETE B, directed by Aude Léa Maupin, along with dèle EXARCHOPOULOS, Souheila YACOUB, and India Hair. She will also be in the spin-off of A QUIET PLACE, along with Lupita NYONG’O and Djimon HONSOU, which will be released in 2024.
©Nicolas Nova