23/03/2016 - The former French Embassy Cultural Attaché has become the third non-Greek to currently head a major cultural institution

Following Dimitri Eipides’ resignation as head of the Thessaloniki Film Festival (TFF), which was announced last January (see the news) and has been in effect since the close of last week’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF), Elise Jalladeau’s appointment as the new director of the organisation has been confirmed by the country’s Ministry of Culture.

A former French Embassy Cultural Attaché and head of the French Film Festival of Greece from 2010-2014, as well as a member of the Greek Film Centre’s governing board from 2011-2015, Jalladeau is regarded as a connoisseur of both the film industry and the festival circuit.

As director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the organisation overseeing the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) and the TDF, Jalladeau is expected to helm an overhaul on the managerial front, her first order of business being to select and appoint new artistic directors for both festivals under her command. 

Eipides, who had been serving as TFF director as well as TIFF and TDF artistic director, has repeatedly expressed his desire to remain as head of the TDF, a prospect that is not considered unlikely, while the TIFF seat is more of an open race between various local players. 

Jalladeau, who was picked by the TFF governing board from a handful of applicants, will be the second French native and third non-Greek to be leading a major Greek cultural institution, following Jan Fabre’s appointment as head of the Greek Festival (the country’s major annual theatrical event) and that of Olivier Descotes as director of the Benaki Museum – a form of managerial outsourcing that has been met with a mixed response.