Critiquing Critics' Week

Those film industry insiders who are in the know may have received news earlier that the amiable and good-humoured Christophe Leparc is leaving the Crtics' Week gang at Cannes where he was Programme Manager to get involved with the Directors' Fortnight folks instead. A big loss for the Critics' Week people...

It's a bit unfortunate, really: The Critics Week people are all a very lovely and incredibly hard-working bunch. The programming is interesting (to a certain point) but is a HUGE challenge to push at Cannes. Most key journos attending Cannes NEED to focus on Competition (and Out of Competition to a certain degree) films. Since the Critics' Week programme is made up of first- or second-time directors only, trying to get media attention is an incredible challenge. Not impossible, but definitely not a piece of cake ("pas du gâteau!", as one would say in France!)

Alas, the Critics' Week is riddled with further challenges, from a PR standpoint:

1. The theatre where all official screenings take place is the furthest away from the Palais -- the Critics' Week feels physically cut off from the rest of the Festival.

2. The theatre is old, small, and with no A/C! Not really the most comfortable of venues...

3. Film screenings have frequently not started on time; I recall one particular Italian journalist throwing a major fit because the late start time had affected her entire day schedule.

4. The first three official screenings are all crammed on the same day (morning, afternoon, evening); so, a particular journalist may have been keenly interested in a particular film but unable to attend it purely due to scheduling.

5. The repeat screening takes place the following day at 8:30 am -- in other words, head-to-head against the first official press screening of a Competition film where most journalists will be.

Based on these few points alone, any journalist would be hard-pressed to try and catch the work of a first- or second-time filmmaker...