17/04/2023 - The artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week section discusses her 2023 selection

(© Aurelie Lamachere/Semaine de la Critique)

Ava Cahen, who’s been the artistic director of Critics’ Week since last year, sat down with Cineuropa to explain the 2023 selection of the parallel section (read our article) whose 62nd edition is set to unspool 17 – 25 May as part of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Cineuropa: What regional trends have you picked up on from the 1,000 feature films you’ve seen?
Ava Cahen: That number, 1,000, is the average number of films we receive each year. South-East Asia is in brilliant shape, with incredibly attractive productions hailing from Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand... Brazil has now returned to filmmaking again after a few very challenging years for culture caused by Bolsonaro’s presidency, and we’ve subsequently selected Lillah Halla’s Power Alley. A film from Jordan, Inchallah A Boy by Amjad Al Rasheed, also leapt out at us and, as far as I know, this is the first ever feature film from that country to be selected for Cannes. French production is in good shape too, as ever. As for short films, we received 2,100 of them, predominantly coming from Asia, too: China, Egypt, India, etc. We were taken all around the world by these feature-length and short-length films, which has ultimately resulted in a very international selection.

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What led you to choose the seven feature films you have in competition: three Asian, three European and one South American?
They’re the films which struck us the most during the viewing process, which stretched from December through to early April. We wanted to share them and to offer up the most comprehensive panorama possible of world cinema, in terms of its themes, registers and genres. This competition notably features sci-fi films (Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu), horror films (Sleep by Jason Yu), drama with a literary touch via Le ravissement by Iris Kaltenbäck, which really reminded me of Claire Denis and Leos Carax’s first steps in film, tragedy flirting with neo-realism (Lost Country by Vladimir Perisič), a summertime chronicle more along the lines of Ken Loach than the Dardenne brothers: Paloma Sermon-Daï’s Il pleut dans la maison… There’s a wide diversity of cinematic offerings.

Unlike last year’s competition which was solely composed of first films, there’s a second feature film in the running this time round. Why is this?
Last year, we received a huge number of first films which we really loved, so we decided, in league with the selection committee, to pay tribute to first feature films. This year, we fell for Lost Country by Vladimir Perisič, and it was clear to us that it had to be included in the competition, surrounded by all those wonderful first films. A few years ago, Critics’ Week selected A White, White Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile], a second feature film by Hlynur Pálmason who was later selected for the Un Certain Regard section via Godland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile]. We want second feature films to be included in the competition too, and, above all, we tend to listen when our hearts speak to us, when there’s critical unanimity and a convergence of views. There aren’t ever any hard and fast rules: we start from scratch every year.

The four feature films enjoying special screenings are directed by a Belgian duo and three French filmmakers. What happened to the other regions, the Europeans first and foremost?
Last year, we had an American film in the opening slot and a Korean one closing the festival. This year, we wanted the competition to be more international: the presence of Malaysia, Korea, France, Brazil, Serbia, Jordan and Belgium takes us all over the world. But we were also totally blown away by Marie Amachoukeli and Erwan Le Duc’s second feature films. We couldn’t let these films pass us by: they’ll offer audiences a genuinely enchanting escape in the opening and closing slots. It’s also a way of paying tribute to French film in all its diversity. Ama Gloria [+see also:
film review
interview: Marie Amachoukeli
film profile], which is opening the event, is an intimate and sensitive drama, while No Love Lost, which is closing Critics’ Week, is a tragicomedy full of imagination and flirting with Wes Anderson’s particular brand of cinema. As for the two other special screenings, The (Ex)perience of Love by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni is a romantic comedy nigh-on shattering hetero norms, while Vincent Must Die by Stéphan Castang is a tense and angst-inducing genre film.

More generally, we’re guided by our hearts. Two years ago, for example, Spanish and Italian cinema were well-positioned in Critics’ Week but their absence this year doesn’t mean we didn’t like any Spanish or Italian films. With only seven competition places available, we had to make some difficult decisions, and other regions stood out, as was the case for the first ever Jordanian film selected for Cannes. And what a film it is! And it can’t be an easy thing either, making films in Jordan.

What about independent American films, which don’t feature in the line-up? Is it a question of lower supply? Production problems? The appeal of the Sundance Festival?
Sundance is a brilliant prospect for independent American films and it’s totally natural that they focus on this festival. I don’t think we received less American movies than usual. And Critics’ Week always follows production over there very closely. This year, we just fell for fewer of their films and had less enthusiasm for them than we had for the films from the other regions. I have to say, independent American cinema does struggle a little bit, as we all know, on account of US studios’ policies and strong leanings towards platforms. At Critics’ Week, we insist that films have distributors and that films can be released in cinemas and meet their audiences, whereas this isn’t always the case for American films, which complicates things somewhat. The quality of their films was definitely there; we just had other preferences, fuelled by different choices and motivations.

Were you offered any films by platforms?
Yes. They always offer us films. They’re eligible to apply, as for the Official Selection, within the Special Screenings section, but not in competition. And we do watch them.

Did the new configuration of the Official Selection, with the Un Certain Regard section having an even greater emphasis on young talent, complicate things for you? What were relations like between the different Cannes selections?
Very good. I speak with Thierry Frémaux a lot, and there’s a real sense of solidarity. I don’t want to wax lyrical about it, but what thrills me is that, year in year out, there’s an increasing number of first and second films in Cannes, meaning ever greater diversity. At Critics’ Week, we want to be the favoured selection for first and second feature films, but we do only have 11 spaces. It’s not many, so if there’s a way of giving life somewhere else to these films which we love but can’t take on, then that’s wonderful, whether it’s in the Un Certain Regard section, in the wider Official Selection or in the Directors’ Fortnight. I’ll always be delighted to see a good film being shown in Cannes. It’s about complementarity. The position of Critics’ Week is very clear: to uncover, platform and confirm new-found talent. It’s lasted 62 years so far, we don’t need to prove ourselves anymore.

Six of the 11 feature films in the showcase are directed by women and, given that one of them is co-directed by a woman, you’ve achieved perfect parity: six women directors and six men directors. Is this a happy coincidence?
We don’t work to quotas, but we are receiving more and more first and second feature films directed by women, across all regions, as shown by the presence in competition of Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu’s first feature film. Obviously, it’s a really heartening result, but it happens instinctively: it’s the films which impose themselves. This doesn’t mean I’m not incredibly proud of such wonderful parity, but it’s not premeditated, even if it is very important to us that we represent films by women directors as much as we can.

(Translated from French)