The jury and the guests

Kleber Mendonça Filho is born in 1968 in Recife, in the north-east of Brazil. He is a graduate of a journalism school and has worked for a long time as a film critic and programmer of a Recife's cinema, the one of the Joaquim Nabuco's foundation. In the 90's, he made, as a videographer, documentaries, fictions and experimental films. His first feature film, Crítico (2008), is a documentary which focuses on the difficult relationships between filmmakers and critics, and made through a series of interviews spread over eight years. O Som ao Redor is his first fiction feature film. His second one, Aquarius is submitted at the official Cannes contest. He is the artistic director of the Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, curator, and programmer for various institutions through Brazil.

Danielle Arbid is born in Beirut and she lives in France. She makes films since 1997. Her fiction films, Peur de rien, Un Homme perdu, Dans les champs de bataille, have been selected for the biggest international festivals, such as Cannes, Toronto, New-York, San Francisco, Locarno, Pusan, Tokyo, etc. She is rewarded with the video Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for the TV series Conversation de salon and with the Silver Leopard for the documentary Seule avec la guerre. She also receives the Albert Londres Prize, the Label Europa of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs and the Grand Prize of the Milan's festival, and so many others. Her work is the subject of several retrospectives in the world (Gijon, La Rochelle, Dei Popoli...). She is also a photographer and an actress.

Garance Marillier is an actress revealed by Grave made by Julia Ducournau (submitted in the 2016 fifib contest), to whom she already work for in her short film Junior. She receives for the latter the Interpretation Prize at the Festival Premiers Plans d’Angers. Having her bachelor's degree since last year, she follows her actress career. We will see her again alongisde Yvan Attal in the series Ad Vitam.

After a legal training, Rachida Brakni turns to theatre. She studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique and becomes a stalwart of the Comédie-Française. She is showed to the cinema world in 2001 with the film Chaos by Coline Serreau thanks to which she gets the César Award for the Most Promising Actress. She takes her first step in video filming and makes De Sas en sas in 2016. Multi-faceted artist, Rachida Brakni then starts music and signs and performs with Gaëtan Roussel the disk Lady Sir.

Born in 1993, Lola Créton grows, since her childhood, within an artistic environment. We discover her in Catherine Breillat's Barbe bleue. It is with Mia Hansen-Løve's work that she is exposed to the public at large with the film Un Amour de jeunesse. Filmings after filmings, she goes across the french independent cinema, with Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis and many others...

Born in 1978, Vincent Macaigne enters the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris in 1999. He creates many theatrical plays such as Idiot ! at the Théâtre de la Ville, Au moins j’aurai laissé un beau cadavre displayed at the Festival d’Avignon, or Je suis un pays, this year at the Théâtre de la Colline.  He directs the short film Ce qu’il restera de nous, the Dom Juan TV adaptation with the Comédie-Française company Dom Juan et Sganarelle and his first feature film Pour le réconfort, part of the ACID selection of the 2017 Cannes Festival. As an actor, he works for Guillaume Brac, Justine Triet, ANtonin Peretjako and many others. He’ll be in the last Olivier Assayas film, Doubles Vies. 

Saïd Hamich, graduate of the Fémis Production department, creates Barney Production with the goal of producing a popular and demanding auteur cinema. In 2012, he is laureate of the Lagardère foundation Cinema Producer's grant. In 2013, he founds the Moroccan company of Mont Fleuri Production. After some fifteen short-films, Saïd Hamich produces Much loved by Nabil Ayouch, Vent du Nord, the first feature film of Walid Mattar and Volubilis by Faouzi Bensaïdi. In parallel, he has been the executive producer of several films among which Hope by Boris Lojkine, Ni le ciel ni la terre by Clément Cogitore and Sofia de Meryem Benm’Barek. In 2017 he makes his first feature film Retour à Bollène, Contrebandes prize of the previous edition.

Author, composer, performer and actress, Calypso Valois is an artist fascinated by art in all its forms. After some drama classes in Paris, she works with distinguished directors such as Olivier Assayas for whom she plays in Après Mai and Personal Shopper, Michel Gondry, in L'Écume des jours or also Catherine Corsini in La Belle Saison. Simultaneously with her comedian activity, Calypso Valois develops a musical career. During the early 2010's she appears in duo with Etienne Daho in Amoureux Solitaires and releases several EP with her previous band « Cinema ». She releases in 2017 her first solo album, Cannibale. 

Lola Bessis is an actress, a director and a producer. After taking cinema studies in London and New-York and training in acting, Lola Bessis takes up realisation. Her short-films win numerous prizes and travel the world. Her first feature film, Swim Little Fish Swim, in which she has the lead role, wins several festival prizes and benefits from a great success during its theatrical release. As a result of this successful experiment, Lola currently develops her second film and continues her actress career.

Bruno Sanches makes his first steps in the theatre and circus spheres as soon as his teenage years. He then undergoes trainings at Cours Florent and often plays in theatres. In cinema films, he works under the leadership of Isabelle Mergault, Anthony Cordier, Sabine Haudepin etc. After several participations in various comic TV shows, he gets known through the duo of Catherine and Liliane alongside Alex Lutz on Canal +. Together, they wrote a film Le Talent de mes amis. We can see him, at the present time, in the theatres with the film of the latter, Guy.

Born in the suburbs of Paris, Morgan Simon graduated from the screenwriting department at La Fémis. His award-winning short films, including American Football, Wake The Dead and Try To Die Young have been selected and shown worldwide. His first feature film, A Taste of Ink, featured in L’Atelier, Cinéfondation at Cannes in 2015. Since then, it has been selected for more than 50 international film festivals and has won 15 awards, including a special mention of the jury at the 64th San Sebastián Film Festival. Released in 2017 and praised by the international press, it received later that year a nomination for the prestigious Louis-Delluc Prize for Best First Film.. 

Lou Chicoteau is a producer. Graduated from the Fémis, she produces short films of Vladilen Vierny, Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel, Iris Kaltenbâck, Benoit Bouthors. She is laureate of the cinema producer grant of the Fondation Lagardère in 2016 and she creates her company to support French and international authors who are project owners of short and feature-length films.

After some literature studies, Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat joins the screenwriters group the « Indélébiles ». She makes several short films with the G.R.E.C. Nowadays, she develops her first feature film, Le Souffle coupé and she works as a screenwriter on Valérie Donzelli and the Larrieu brothers series project but also on film scripts for Patrice Leconte.

In 2012, Lola Quivoron enters the realisation department of the Fémis. In her work she explores enclosed and marginal worlds, and always exclusively masculine ones through what they convey of what is mostly agreed upon – power and manhood – and metaphysical; men faced with the desire of mighty power.

Born in Paris in 1976, graduated from philosophy, Virgil Vernier studies during two years at the Beaux-Arts de Paris where he meets Christian Boltanski who guides him towards the realisation of his two first video films. In 2007, he gets known with the release of Chroniques de 2005, a film about lives and dreams of five characters born in 1980.

Born in 1993, Lola Créton grows, since her childhood, within an artistic environment. We discover her in Catherine Breillat's Barbe bleue. It is with Mia Hansen-Løve's work that she is exposed to the public at large with the film Un Amour de jeunesse. Filmings after filmings, she goes across the french independent cinema, with Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis and many others...