Critics' Week

Critics' Week

Location	Cannes, France
Founded	1962
Awards	Grand Prize
Website	www.semainedelacritique.com

Critics' Week (French: Semaine de la critique), until 2008 called International Critics' Week (Semaine internationale de la critique), is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created in 1962, after the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics's successful campaign for Shirley Clarke's The Connection to be screened at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.^[1] It is the oldest non-official Cannes sidebar.^[2][3]

Critics' Week's objective is to discover and support new talents, showcasing first and second feature films by directors worldwide. Bernardo Bertolucci,^[4] Philip Kaufman, Ken Loach, Tony Scott, Agnieszka Holland,^[5] Leos Carax, Wong Kar-wai,^[6] Guillermo del Toro,^[7] Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin, Gaspar Noé,^[6] François Ozon,^[8] Andrea Arnold,^[9] Alejandro González Iñárritu, Julia Ducournau,^[6] Justine Triet,^[10] all began at Critics' Week.

Critics' Week presents a selective program of seven feature films and ten short films in competition.^[11] There are also special screenings which are kept few in number in order to provide them greater visibility.^[12] Feature films compete for Grand Prize, the SACD Prize, which is awarded for best screenplay, and the Gan Foundation Award, which helps films get distribution.^[13] Short films can receive the Canal+ Award and the Discovery Award.^[14] Debut feature films are eligible for the Caméra d'Or, which is open to all first films in Official Selection and the parallel sections at Cannes.^[15]

Since its creation in 1990 and until 2010, there was no jury at Critics' Week. Journalists of all nationalities were invited to vote at the end of each screening of the films in competition, after which the Grand Prize was awarded. In 2011, on the occasion of its 50th edition, Critics' Week formed an international jury made up of four critics and chaired by Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong. Thereafter, the jury has been presided over by a director and consists of four members with writing, filmmaking, acting or programming backgrounds.^[16] Notable jury presidents have included Bertrand Bonello, Miguel Gomes, Andrea Arnold, Ronit Elkabetz, Valérie Donzelli, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Joachim Trier, Ciro Guerra and Cristian Mungiu.^[17]