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

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

Started as a critic, he then worked as the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Liberation, and later became the editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Télérama. Member of the Directors’ Fortnight selection committee for three editions, between 2015 and 2018, he is now a free-lance journalist (Les Cahiers du Cinéma) and a documentary scriptwriter.

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.

Film critic and writer for Transfuge, Positif and FrenchMania magazines. He also contributes to Le Cercle on Canal+. Frédéric teaches film history and film criticism, has worked on many special features for the DVDs of newly restored films and has his own film club in the outskirts of Paris. In 2016, he published his first book, Les écrivains du 7ème art, published by Séguier then he collaborated on writing Joanna Hogg's monograph and worked on a collective book on Raoul Walsh.

A journalist for Les Fiches du cinéma, the co-host of the radio programme Longtemps je me suis couché de bonne heure, Thomas Fouet co-founded and was the chief editor of online magazine Cinématraque, the co-chief editor of Capsules, the co-writer of Les Sortilèges du blockbuster and is a member of the short film selection committee of La Semaine de la Critique (2017-2019 and 2022-2023).

A journalist and film critic for Première magazines and TroisCouleurs, Damien Leblanc was also the programmer of the Couleurs de la Toile film club. Damien takes part of several festival juries and hosts debates and films presentations. Before joining the feature film selection committee, he has been member of the shorts films selection committee in 2022. In addition, he published an analytical book on the Mad Men TV serie published by Playlist Society.

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.