La French Touch, partner of the 63rd Critics’ Week
Critics' Week is in full swing! For the third year running, French Touch has partnered with this parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, whose program focuses on first and second films by emerging filmmakers. Screenings, business meetings between professionals in the cultural and creative industries, the presentation of the French Touch Jury Prize, conferences on the film industry… a promising week for the orange rooster, which, through this event, continues its mission of discovering young talents in filmmaking and networking entrepreneurs in the sector, to build the cinema of tomorrow.
Poster for the 63rd Critics’ Week
What is Critics' Week?
This flagship event in the cinematic landscape, inherent to the Cannes Film Festival, was created in 1962 by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, with the aim of honoring first and second feature films and revealing young creative talents. It is thanks to Critics' Week that directors such as Jacques Audiard, Alejandro González Iñarritu, Ken Loach, François Ozon, Wong Kar Wai or more recently César Augusto Acevedo, Julia Ducournau, David R. Mitchell, Santiago Miter , Jeff Nichols or Rebecca Zlotowski have been revealed.
It all began in 1961, at the 14th Cannes International Film Festival, with the screening of Shirley Clarke's The Connection (USA), adapted from a play by Jack Gekber. This groundbreaking film broke with the conventions of cinematic production and caused a sensation, so much so that at the following year's festival, the French Association of Film Critics created a special section to amplify the phenomenon. Film critic and filmmaker Nelly Kaplan coined the name Critics' Week, which stuck.
Since then, the objective of Critics' Week has remained the same: to defend and represent young cinematographic creation. This event also plays a key role in supporting short film directors through the Next Step program, and in educating younger generations in film criticism.
By joining forces with this event, the French Touch reaffirms its support for the young talents who will make the cinema of tomorrow.
What films are being presented at Critics’ Week 2024?
Discover the official selection of feature films for this 63rd edition , presented from May 15 to 23, one of which will win the French Touch Jury Prize, following in the footsteps of Paloma Sermon-Dai's * Il pleut dans la maison* and Charlotte Wells' * Aftersun *, which were awarded the prize in the last two years. This prize aims to reward the audacity and creativity of a unique cinematic gesture, as well as excellence and innovation.
The testimony of Ava Cahen, general delegate of Critics’ Week
The testimony of Eliane Umuhire, actress and member of the French Touch Prize jury
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