happens Director Audrey Diwan will lead the judging panel for this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar, organizers announced Wednesday.
The French filmmaker won the Golden Lion in Venice for happens, an abortion drama set in early 1960s France, her second feature film. She will take over as jury president for Critics’ Week, a parallel sidebar to the Cannes Festival that focuses on first and second feature films from emerging talent.
German actor Franz Rogowski (A hidden life, disco boy), Portuguese cinematographer Rui Poças (Frankie, Tabu), Sundance festival programmer Kim Yutani, and Indian journalist and Berlinale festival programmer Meenakshi Shedde.
Originally founded by an association of French film critics in 1962, Critics’ Week is Cannes’ oldest unofficial sidebar. The section is credited with discovering some of the biggest names in independent and art house cinema, many of whom have found success at the Official Festival. Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach made his feature film debut Kes to Critics’ Week in 1970. Julia Ducournau’s first film, Raw, was a selection of the Critics’ Week in 2016. Its successor, Titane, won the Palme d’Or in 2021. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut Amores Perros was screened there in 2000. His 2006 feature film Babel and 2010 Bitiful were in the official competition, the former Best Director winner. Andrea Arnold’s first shorts—Milk (1998) and Dog (2001)—were also Critics’ Week premieres. The British director has since had three feature films – Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009) and American Honey (2016) – in competition, the latter two winning best director. Arnold’s last film, the documentary Cow, screened out of competition in the official selection.
The Critics’ Week jury awards prizes for best film, the jury’s French Touch Prize, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Best Actor or Actress, and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for Best Short Film in the selection.
Critics’ Week 2023 runs from May 17-25.
