20/07/2005

Jean-Frédéric Jauslin, director of The Federal Office for culture (OFC), named Nicolas Bideau head of the cinema section. He succeeds Marc Wehrlin, who became Deputy Director of the OFC in April, and starts work on the first of October.

Though seeped in the cinema since he was born, the son of actor Jean-Luc Bideau followed an unusual route. At first, he embraced the political sciences and Chinese Stdies at Lausanne, Paris, then in Peking for three years, where he joined the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (DFAE). From 2002 to 2003, he was diplomatic advisor to Pascal Couchepin, head of the Federal Department for the Interior who was in charge notably of the fate of culture. Returning to the DFAE in 2004, he took a new job at the Centre for Competence In Foreign Politics, where he was able to familiarise himself with contemporary Swiss cinema.

The profile of the young French-speaking diplomat, at only 36, augurs well for Switerland's entry into the Media programme, for January 2006. After 14 years of isolation from the heart of Europe, the Swiss Confederation really needs someone to trumpet its return if it does not want it to go unnoticed in European cinema circles. Nicolas Bideau is not exactly what you would call an old-school diplomat. His charisma and straight-talking announces a rock-in-roll era for Swiss cinema, and the resonances should be evident very quickly. As soon as he takes up his functions, Nicolas Bideau will have to put in place new support regimes for cinema to be ready for the start of next year, re-adapting all the Confederation's aid mechanisms in place since 2002. In advance, Nicolas Bideau announced that he will put and end to the "soaking" by subsidy and will re-enforce the promotion of Swiss cinema. In an interview given to Ciné-Bulletin, he also declared: "…we musn't be afraid, we have the talent, we have to be proud of our cinema and we have to make a noise about it!".

Though the arrival of this battler in the Cinema section is generally accepted by the profession, his intention to redirect funds towards quality and popular films has not been unanimously welcomed.

(Translated from French)