producer Sylvie Pialat replaces Rodrigo Sorogoyen as president of Critics’ Week

Filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen has given up chairing the jury for Critics’ Week, one of the parallel selections of the Cannes Film Festival, and is replaced by producer Sylvie Pialat, the organizers announced on Saturday May 11. The Spanish director defected “due to personal circumstances”indicated those responsible for the 63rd Critics’ Week (May 15-23), without further details.

Sylvie Pialat was already part of the jury before being appointed president. On the jury, she is replaced by French filmmaker Iris Kaltenbäck, who joins Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej and North American journalist and critic Ben Croll.

In total, eleven feature films are selected, of which seven participate in the competition. Among them, Taiwanese works (Locust by director KEFF), Argentina (Simon of the Mountain by Federico Luis) or French (The Pampas by Antoine Chevrollier).

Critics’ Week has a great history. Since 1962, a number of now established filmmakers have been discovered there, from Ken Loach (revealed in 1970 at La Semaine with Kes and holder of two Palmes d’Or for The wind picks up And Me, Daniel Blake in 2006 and 2016) to Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or with Titanium in 2021, after presenting his previous film, Severeweekly).