Due to personal reasons, Rodrigo Sorogoyen unfortunately has to step down as President of the jury for the 63rd Semaine de la Critique.
Sylvie Pialat has accepted to take over as President of the Jury.
French director Iris Kaltenbäck, who successfully presented The Rapture at La Semaine last year, joins the jury alongside Eliane Umuhire, Virginie Surdej and Ben Croll.
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).
Sylvie Pialat will give the Semaine de la Critique Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor or actress, and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.
Accompanying her in her duties, Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends by André Téchiné, Haven of Grace by Vincent Maël Cardonna), French film director Iris Kaltenbäck (A Visit from the Stork, The Rapture), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan by Maryam Touzani, Our Mothers by César Díaz - 2019 Semaine de la Critique and Caméra d’Or, Casablanca Beats by Nabil Ayouch), as well as Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
La Semaine de la Critique will take place in Cannes
from the 15th to the 23rd of May.
- THE JURY MEMBERS
With the support of
Sylvie Pialat's picture ©David Balicki