16/04/2025 - The General Delegate of the Cannes Critics’ Week breaks down her 2025 selection

(© Critics' Week)

Ava Cahen, who has served as General Delegate of the Critics’ Week for the last three years, chats to Cineuropa to break down the 2025 selection (see the article) of the parallel section, the 64th edition of which will unspool from 14-22 May as an integral part of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

Cineuropa: How did the selection process unfold?
Ava Cahen: The films came in a bit later than normal this year, which entailed a different kind of marathon. But it went extremely well with the selection committee, which had been changed up a little. It was very joyful and very intense. We saw 1,000 features, and the short-film committee watched 2,340 shorts (a record number).

Were there many discussions in the process of settling on the selection of 11 features?
The films sparked a great deal of enthusiasm and spawned many debates. That’s what’s so fascinating about being a selector, but also about doing it with film critics. What we’re trying to do in the Critics’ Week is to give a voice to films that will make people talk. We’re not looking for a weak consensus. Beyond the unveiling of the films themselves, there’s an unveiling of the auteurs and, in general, of universal, contemporary subjects that can be a little abrasive. And aside from the themes they tackle and the point of view they have on the world, all of the films that we’ve selected stunned us on an artistic level with their sheer sense of cinema. Behind these movies are some great filmmakers who, I hope, will make an even bigger splash in the near future.

Europe’s biggest slum (Sleepless City), bereavement and insecurity (Kika), the reawakening of conflicts and trauma (Imago), a debt-ridden mother and her two daughters (Left Handed Girl), the wanderings of a young man through the streets (Nino), a paediatric unit (Adam’s Interest)… A high proportion of your selection delves to the heart of the difficulties of the modern world. Is this a trend that you have noticed on a broader level among all of the films that were sent in?
Yes. Overall, the world is in a bad place, and cinema is reflecting that. The subjects coursing through the selection are rather serious topics, but what moved us is that behind the gravity of these very universal subjects, there is so much hope. They are broached in a very hard-hitting way, with a form, an aesthetic approach and a mise-en-scène that are never miserabilist or gloomy. There’s light streaming through all of these movies, and that’s what made us even more eager to defend and support them. For example, that’s what’s so extraordinary about the film by Spaniard Guillermo Galoe (Sleepless City), who, with the support of the inhabitants of la Cañada Real, managed to shoot a film in this shanty town and open our eyes to the reality there.

Included in the competition are a documentary (Imago) and two feature-length fiction debuts by documentarians (Sleepless City and Kika). What can you tell us about this trend?
Capturing reality has always been a challenge, and it’s true that documentary and fictional approaches are increasingly crossing over with one another. But we went off in search of something other than this hybridisation. A bit like Jonathan Millet last year with Ghost Trail [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonathan Millet
interview: Pauline Seigland
film profile] (he was also a documentarian crossing over into fiction), it’s about how one translates reality through a narrative, through the fanciful, and through the embodiment of very powerful and realistic stories by characters and astonishing new actors (such as Manon Clavel in Alexe Poukine’s Kika).

Nevertheless, your selection takes in several genres, with an unadulterated comedy (Baise-en-ville), a dark police flick (Reedland), a comedy-drama (Des preuves d’amour) and a ghost film (A Useful Ghost) as well.
The film by Thailand’s Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke is totally crazy! I think after you see this fantastical social satire, you’ll never hoover the same way again. When we draw up our shortlist, we try, above all, to reflect on a way of enabling the films we like to exist alongside each other, rather than pit them against each other – each one should have its own flavour and its own cinematic territory to defend. It’s this combination that we’re trying to achieve.

The inclusion of a Chechen film on the programme is quite unexpected.
The film industry in Chechnya is highly complex... Not every country in the world has the support of a CNC or equivalent. Incidentally, that’s the reason why there are so many French co-productions, because France helps international cinema to flourish when it’s struggling. And Imago is an autobiographical documentary that’s very dense and thrilling; it was edited by Laurent Sénéchal (Ghost Trail, Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile]).

With Dandelion’s Odyssey, animation is making a return to the Critics’ Week for the first time since 2019.
It was love at first sight with this film by Japan’s Momoko Sato, which whisks us away on a voyage through the dandelions. We had never experienced such emotions through plants! It’s psychedelic, with some incredibly unique aesthetics, and we wanted to end the Critics’ Week on a high note with a message addressing all living things and addressing the universal environmental conscience.

The selection is very Eurocentric, with a distinct whiff of Asian cinema. What happened to the other continents?
It’s always luck of the draw and cases of love at first sight. With 11 films, we can’t possibly represent the entire globe. And you have to take a step back because, for instance, Latin America has been very sprightly in the Critics’ Week over the last few years. There aren’t any territories that are in worse shape than the others; it’s simply that our hearts led us elsewhere, even though we can’t forget that with dictatorships and wars, it’s very complicated for artists to be creative in certain countries such as Argentina, for one.

French and Belgian productions seem to be enjoying the lion’s share.
The Critics’ Week has a soft spot for Belgian cinema, and it’s a love story stretching back a long time – just think of Man Bites Dog (1992), for example. Since Zero Fucks Given [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Marre and Julie Le…
film profile], we’ve noticed the incredible vibrancy of Belgian films that tackle very thorny social questions, always using very powerful cinematic tools. Laura Wandel (Adam’s Interest) and Alexe Poukine (Kika) are yet more new voices that are establishing and asserting themselves. And it’s also brilliant to see that this resurgence of Belgian cinema includes female directors. Incidentally, even if we do not work with quotas, it’s not a complete coincidence that, this year, six of the 11 films selected were directed by women. We are all more aware of this issue, and perhaps we are keeping a closer eye on it. This year, for instance, across every one of the Cannes selections, all of the very strong French feature debuts were directed by women. There’s a new wave of female directors emerging, and I’m always delighted to introduce works by women and for us to reach a form of equality and parity.

How do you handle competing with the drawing power of the Official Selection, particularly with Un Certain Regard now being clearly intended for young talents, and the Directors’ Fortnight also being very partial to feature debuts?
It’s not unusual for us to have shared tastes, and we are all mindful of the good films. But these are discussions that we also have with producers, sales agents and distributors when the films have them attached. We try to see what the best combination is, the best opportunity, the best kind of showcase. For certain movies, such and such a form of exposure might seem more suitable, but we discuss it; we don’t just grab at films. A selection is the result of careful consideration, guided by cases of love at first sight and by pondering the best way to make a film shine as brightly as it can: it’s very important for debut features, which we are actually the first people to see. It’s a big responsibility, and the Critics’ Week is also a place of commitment because, beyond the spotlight at Cannes, we accompany the movies with extra screenings and up until their theatrical release. What’s crucial for us is to make sure that these films find distributors, particularly French ones, and that they are seen by audiences.

I’m delighted – and I’m really being honest here and not just spouting clichés – to see other debut films in other sections besides the Critics’ Week. I’m very proud of our 2025 selection, and we are going to present films that we really wanted to show. What’s more, we have also noticed that talents hailing from the Critics’ Week are now mounting the grand steps of the Palais des Festivals, such as Julia Ducournau, of course, but also Hafsia Herzi, Óliver Laxe, Hubert Charuel and Alex Lutz. It’s a game that we are all playing because, in reality, what we all want is to make filmmakers more visible. In the Critics’ Week, our ambition is to look at first and second films, and try to glimpse the immense skills behind them and potentially a great filmography to come afterwards – we want these filmmakers to subsequently be selected in competition at the world’s biggest festivals, and especially at Cannes.

(Translated from French)