Head of Cannes Critics' Week visits Australia in November

The Artistic Director of Critics' Week in Cannes, Charles Tesson, will visit Australia in early November as part of the festival's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Screen Australia is hosting the visit, with a schedule that includes the Brisbane International Film Festival and the opening of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) Conference and SPAAmart in Sydney.

Charles Tesson is a film critic and author who was the editor-in-chief of French film monthly Les Cahiers du Cinema from 1998 to 2003. In 2011 he was a member of the Critics’ Week feature films selection committee.

A parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Week is about discovering new talent by showcasing first and second films by directors from all over the world. Each year a maximum 20 filmmakers are invited by the festival – the Competition section comprises seven features and seven shorts and Special Screenings comprises three features and three shorts.

Recent Australian films to screen in Critics’ Week include in 2011 the feature film Snowtown (d: Justin Kurzel, p: Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw), which was awarded a Special Distinction by the President. In 2010 the short film Deeper than Yesterday (w/d: Ariel Kleiman, p: Benjamin Gilovitz, Sarah Cyngler, Anna Kojevnikov) received the Kodak Discovery Award for a Short Film.

Critics’ Week will be held in May 2012.

Submissions will open later this year for first or second feature-length films which have not screened in public in a film festival or in a theatre outside of Australia.

Short films (under 60 minutes) must also be international premieres.

Filmmakers with eligible features intending to submit to Critics’ Week 2012 are invited to email Dale Fairbairn at Screen Australia.