Recap Of International Critic's Week

Text: Aidan Mac Guill
Image: Lea Seydoux, Belle Epine

From Thursday to Sunday the Cinémathèque Française will be showing the 14 short and feature-length films which were in competition at the International Critic's Week at Cannes. On Thursday night Rebecca Zlotowski will introduce her film 'Belle Epine' alongside its star Lea Seydoux (who some unlucky readers may have spotted in Ridley Scott's recent 'Robin Hood' film).

Also showing over the weekend will be 'Armadillo', Janus Metz's controversial documentary about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. The film, which took the Grand Prize at Cannes, has already prompted a government inquiry into the behaviour of Danish troops in Metz's native Denmark. Each film will be preceded by a short film from competition, which this year was won by Daniel Joseph Borgman's 'Berik', set in a small village in Kazakhstan situated in the shadow of a nuclear plant. There will also be special screenings of short films that were not in competition. A complete programme is available here.

Now in its 49th year, the International Critic's Week is the oldest parallel competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival. It was created in 1962 by the French Union of Film Critics with the objective of providing a showcase for first or second-time directors from all over the world, whose work might otherwise be swallowed up and ignored by the main festival itself.

Through the years the likes of Bernardo Bertolucci, Otar Iosseliani, Ken Loach, Wong Kar Wai, Arnaud Desplechin and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu have all been thrust into the spotlight at La Semaine. More recently the introduction of a competition for short films has revealed the talents of filmmakers like Francois Ozon, Gasper Noe and Andrea Arnold, whose short 'Wasp', which went on to win the director an Oscar, was screened in competition.

LA SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE
Thursday June 3rd - Sunday June 6th

La Cinémathèque Française
51 rue de Bercy, 75012
Metro Bercy