Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, the section running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, is set to change its leadership after the 2022 edition. It will be Paolo Moretti’s third and last edition as artistic director of the program.
The SRF (Société des réalisateurs de films) which is the governing body of Directors Fortnight, announced the news on Feb. 9 and said that more changes are being planned. “The administration board of the SRF wishes to rethink thoroughly Directors’ Fortnight, its name, its singularity, and its strategic and political role.”
Moretti joined Directors’ Fortnight in 2019 from the Roche-sur-Yon Festival, where he had been artistic director since 2014. His exit comes as a surprise and industry insiders said Moretti was hoping to stay for one more edition in 2023. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 edition had to be scrapped. In 2021, Directors’ Fortnight returned with a lineup which included Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II,” Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava” and Jonas Carpignano’s “A Chiara.”
The Italian executive took over from Edouard Waintrop who was also surprisingly ousted in 2018 after seven editions which were widely considered as successful. Before Waintrop, Frederic Boyer, who now heads Tribeca and Les Arcs, experienced a similar fate at Directors Fortnight.
The SFR, whose board members include Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain and Lucie Borleteau, thanked “Moretti for his dedicated work since 2018, his commitment towards movies and filmmakers, the quality of his selections, his unwavering professionalism and his handling during a particularly difficult period since the beginning of the health crisis.”
The guild said it will soon start the recruiting process for the next artistic director of Directors’ Fortnight.
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