In a positive sign of things to come for Cannes 2019, the fest’s Directors’ Fortnight sidebar has unveiled a gender-balanced selection committee. The six-member group, led by Delegate general Paolo Moretti, is comprised of three women and three men, a press release revealed. The committee’s women are Anne Delseth, Claire Diao, Valentina Novati; its men are Moretti, Morgan Pokée, and Paolo Bertolin.
In addition to improving on the stats of last year’s selection committee — made up of three men and two women — this development is sign of good faith from Directors’ Fortnight and its participation in Cannes’ history-making gender parity pledge. Alongside Cannes head Thierry Frémaux and fest sidebar Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight agreed to compile statistics according to gender, including the number of films submitted; identify the members of selection committees and programmers; and make a commitment schedule to achieve parity on their board.
Directors’ Fortnight also reached gender parity with its 2019 program advisors and correspondents. Both groups include two women and two men. The female program advisors are Emilie Bujès and Charlotte Serrand, while the women correspondents are Deepti DCunha and Alëna Shumakova.
It remains to be seen whether Cannes and its affiliates will make good on their promise, but, thanks to its new committee, advisors, and correspondents, Directors’ Fortnight seems to be well on its way.
Cannes 2019 will run May 14-25. The Directors’ Fortnight will be held May 15-25.
Check out the bios for the selection committee’s female members below, courtesy of Directors’ Fortnight.
Anne Delseth studied journalism in Fribourg, Switzerland, also earning a Master’s degree in Cultural Management. She worked for the Fribourg International Film Festival and as a production assistant on films by Ursula Meier and Jean-Stéphane Bron. From 2008 to 2011, she was assistant to the artistic director of the Fribourg Festival; in 2011 she worked in international sales at Urban Distribution. A member of the Directors’ Fortnight selection committee since 2012, she joined the selection committee of the Locarno Festival for the 2018 edition. She directs the HEAD (Geneva) and ECAL Master’s in Film Studies in Lausanne, where she also runs an arthouse cinema. Anne Delseth is also a consultant for the Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival and the Zürich Film Festival.
Claire Diao is a French-Burkinabe journalist and film critic. In 2013, she started the itinerant Quartiers Lointains short film programme, which is shown in France, the United States and several countries in Africa. In 2015, she co-founded Awotele the pan African film periodical and in 2016 formed Sudu Connexion, the distribution company for films from Africa and the African diaspora. Her 2017 essay, «Double Wave, the New Life of French Cinema» published by Au Diable Vauvert, won her the SACD’s 2018 Beaumarchais Medal. She is a moderator of the morning debates of the International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand and a film commentator on “Le Cercle” on the Canal + “Cinémas” channel; on the news broadcast of “Afrique” on TV5 Monde, and will be the presenter of films shown on the France Ô channel starting in September 2018.
Valentina Novati was born in Paris in 1981. After earning a Master’s in Semiology of Text and Image, she began working in production, on the films of Thierry Jousse, Erick Zonca, Eva Ionesco, among others. In 2010, she founded Independencia; the company divided into two distinct entities, Norte Productions and Norte Distribution in 2014. She has produced fifteen films, including films by Luc Moullet, André S. Labarthe, Antoine d’Agata, Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, and has distributed about thirty films.
