June 4, 2020–Artistic director Charles Tesson and his team have picked 5 features and 10 short films, which can use the 2020 Semaine de la Critique label in their marketing and promotion efforts.
Following the lead of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, sidebar event Critics’ Week (Semaine de la Critique) has unveiled a selection of films that, while they will not screen on the Croisette, will be branded with the Semaine de la Critique label.
The Critics’ Week, along with the regular Cannes Festival, was forced to cancel this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled 54 titles, including Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Pixar feature Soul, that it picked for its 2020 Official Selection. The films will screen at other partner festivals and can use the Cannes 2020 label in their marketing and promotional efforts.
In similar vein, the Critics’ Week selection committee on Thursday announced five feature films and 10 shorts that will receive the 2020 Semaine de la Critique label, which they can use as a seal of approval in their marketing efforts to audiences and festivals.
The feature films selected include Aleem Khan’s After Love, which Le Bureau is selling worldwide; Gold for Dogs from director Anna Cazenave Cambet and sales group WTFilms; Just Philippot’s genre drama The Swarm from Wild Bunch; Charades’ Skies of Lebanon from director Chloé Mazlo, which stars Alba Rohrwacher; and Beasts from director Naël Marandin, which Kinology is selling internationally.
Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson and his team will support the projects in their rollout through to their theatrical releases in France. The lineup will screen as a special section — La Semaine de la Critique Carte Blanche — at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, which runs Aug. 28-Sept. 2.
The 10 short films of the noncompetitive support program will be screened online on Festival Scope Pro between Oct. 19 and Oct. 25 to industry professionals and on Festival Scope between Oct. 22 and Oct. 25 to general audiences. There will be previews at the French Cinematheque, as well as screenings at the Czech Cinematheque and in New York City in collaboration with Kinoscope.
Though the Critics’ Week lineup will be noncompetitive, one of the section’s main sponsors, the Gan Foundation for Cinema, will pick the best film of the selection and award a $22,500 cash prize to the film’s distributor.