Selection Committees

Ava Cahen has been the artistic director of La Semaine de la Critique since the 61st edition (2022). In 2017, she co-founded the website frenchmania.fr, dedicated to French and Francophone cinema, and is still its co-chief editor. She has been a commentator on Canal +'s Le Cercle since 2014, and between 2021 and 2023, she took part in a number of Le Masque et La Plume programs on France Inter. She has published several books on cinema and series (Woody Allen, profession cynique, Cheforama, la gastronomie au cinéma, FrenchMania la revue, Game of Thrones, décodé). She regularly takes part in juries and workshops at international festivals such as Morelia IFF, Busan IFF, Reykjavik IFF, Xining IFF (First), Jerusalem IFF Workshop, Marrakech IFF Atlas Workshops and Sarajevo IFF.

Picture © Aurélie Lamachère

Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou is an art ant film curator, a film critic and university lecturer (HEAD, Geneva). In 2020, she joined the team of the Yennenga Centre in Dakar and the Marrakech International Film Festival. She is a regular contributor for specialised publications - From Programming to Curating Film Festivals : la Semaine de la Critique and Marrakech International Film Festival in the Age of Covid 19, (ed. Palgrave MacMillan), Thousand Suns by Mati Diop, as Æsthetic of the Interstice (ed. Harmattan) and to FrenchMania magazine.

Photo © Elise Ortiou Campion

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

Film and TV series critic. She has worked for various outlets such as Konbini, Rockyrama and CinéSéries. In 2018, she created Sorociné, a podcast in which she sheds light on women in film - both on screen and behind the camera. For the project, she’s also developed the concept as a print periodical whose first issue was published last summer in 2021.

Coordinator

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.

Film journalist and critic for Les Inrockuptibles and for the magazine TroisCouleurs.

A journalist and a film critic, Marie-Pauline Mollaret is the editor-in-chief of the web magazine EcranNoir.fr and a columnist for several specialised magazines, such as the monthly magazine L'Avant-scène Cinéma, and Bref, dedicated to short films. Marie-Pauline also works as a programmer and is a member of the selection committees of various festivals, including the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the PIAFF - the Paris International Animation Film Festival.

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.