2024 JURY
Jean Achache
Director and screenwriter
Jean Achache began his career as assistant director for numerous directors such as Robert Enrico, Alexandre Arcady, Georges Lautner, Bertrand Tavernier, Yves Boisset, Tony Scott or Joseph Losey. After ensuring the general coordination of Jean-Paul Goude’s show celebrating the bicentenary of the French revolution, he turned his hand to directing, starting with advertising films and music clips (Rita Mitsouko, Patrick Bruel, Indochine…). In 2009 he directed a feature film, Un Soir au Club, drawn from the eponymous novel by Christian Gailly. He also directed several documentaries such as Before Midnight on the subject of Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight and Diabolo’s Workshop with Terry Gilliam and Slava Polunin as well as several political documentaries and The Byrd, a Love Affair on the subject of the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia. He is also the author of Juste une Nuit, published by Editions du Masque.
Ariane Boeglin Levent
Editor
Ariane Bœglin Levent started her career as assistant to chief editors such as Armand Psenny and Albert Jurgenson. Continuing her training as was the custom at that time, she went on to be Bertrand Tavernier’s sound editor on Spoiled Children, A Sunday in the Country, Béatrice, Life and Nothing and for Laurent Heynemann’s films The Question and The Rounders. She then moved on to film editing with Bertrand Tavernier, but also worked with Gilles Grangier, Pierre Granier Deferre, Bertrand Arthuis, René Ferret and Renaud Bertrand. These are some of the films and series she edited: The Mystery of Alexina, The Three of Us, Lyon Special Police, Clara Sheller, Mississippi Blues, Daddy Nostalgia, L627, Revenge of the Musketeers.
Maud Boissac
Head of cultural affairs for the city of Cannes
Maud Boissac is a culture professional, recognised for her experience and her expertise in managing major national and international cultural projects. She has been head of cultural affairs for the city of Cannes since August 2016 and she implements the cultural policy promoted by David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes. Responsible for supervising 22 major cultural venues, she directs some remarkable projects, notably the candidacy of the monastery on the island of Saint Honorat for the list of UNESCO world heritage sites and actions undertaken by Cannes in the network of UNESCO’s creative cities to highlight the film and audiovisual sector, along with the coordination of the cultural aspect of the International Film and Cannes Film Festival Museum in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française and the Cannes Film Festival. She was also in charge of coordinating the generalisation of Artistic and Cultural Education for 18 000 youngsters, bringing Cannes to the forefront as a 100 % ACE pilot city. She has developed important cultural partnerships with various cities in Europe, Algeria, Senegal, Ukraine, Armenia and South Korea.
Jean-Marie Dura
Expert in film economics
After graduating from ESCP in 1986 and spending 18 months as EOR in the French Navy, he began his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen.
Following two years in the family firm, Dura Furniture, which he helped to set on the right track, he joined UGC cinema group in 1992 as financial director of UGC Film Rights or UGC DA, a subsidiary of the group listed on the Paris stock market.
After UGC DA was sold to Canal+ in 1996, Jean-Marie left Canal+ in April 1997 to join Infogrames, the Lyon-based publisher and distributor of video games, where he was in charge of developing and publishing video games before becoming its general manager, in charge of finance. When he returned to UGC in late 1999, Jean-Marie was appointed as the group’s deputy general manager, in charge of the European cinema network, where he oversaw the launch of the UGC Unlimited films membership card.
In November 2012, he became deputy CEO of Ymagis group, the European leader of fin ancial solutions for the transition of cinemas to digital technology and digital services for cinema operators and producers. In March 2013, he piloted the group’s introduction onto the stock market, then for 3 years he followed its development in France and abroad. After leaving his operational positions in June 2015, he was appointed administrator of the group and chairman of the audit committee until he left these positions in June 2018.
From 2016 to 2022, he was on the executive board of the CNC’s RIAM and CIT committees and in 2016, he was entrusted with drafting a report on the future of cinemas, which was published in September 2016. Since October 2018, he has been an administrator and treasurer of the CST, an association entrusted with developing quality standards for the film and audio-visual industry under the aegis of the CNC, from shooting to screening via digital conservation. In July 2015, he moved to the Auvergne region with his family and is now a consultant and advisor in the fields of cinema and M&A. He also lectures in the cinema business course at the Femis and at the Sorbonne.
In September 2023, Jean-Marie joined the board of directors of Sauve Qui Peut le Court-Métrage, the association that organises the famous international short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand every year.
Agnès Godard
Director of Photography
After resuming film studies at the Censier faculty, Agnès Godard passed the entrance exam for IDHEC and graduated in 1980. She started off as a camera assistant, working alongside Henri Alekan and Robby Müller on Wim Wenders’ film, Paris, Texas. She soon moved on to being second camera operator, notably on Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire before becoming a Director of Photography. She was a loyal DoP and worked with prestigious film-makers such as Claire Denis, Catherine Corsini or Erick Zonka. In 2001, she was awarded the César award for best photography on Claire Denis’ Beau Travail. Since 2012 and the transition to digital technology, Agnès has enjoyed experimenting with this technology. She decided to work on additional lighting that is both within the camera’s field and off-camera in order to vary the visual ambience, thus creating a completely new approach to images.
Parallel to her professional activity, Agnès Godard passes on her know-how to student directors of photography, regularly lecturing at the CinéFabrique, the Femis and the Geneva school of Art and Design. Among other distinctions, Agnès was consecrated Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Yves-Marie Omnes
Sound engineer
Yves-Marie Omnes is a French sound engineer who works on international productions. It was during his artistic studies that he discovered sound and its implication in films and he decided on a career as a sound engineer. To begin with, he worked for television but soon found it quite restricting. In 1992, he met Jean-Paul Mugel, the legendary French sound engineer, who offered him a job working on one of Manoel de Oliveira’s films. This was a revelation that led to him becoming a boom operator for films. Over the following decade, he worked with Jean-Paul Mugel and was lucky enough to participate in an eclectic range of films such as Oliver Stone’s Alexandre, Michael Haneke’s Hidden and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In 2009 he became a sound engineer and started working on French films – many of which were directed by women. Among them, the most notable are Catherine Corsini’s Leaving with Kristin Scott-Thomas and Three Worlds also by Corsini, For a Woman by Diane Kurys and Cherry on the Cake, Laura Morante’s first film as director. In 2015, he began working with Luca Guadagnino on A Bigger Splash, which led to him doing Call me by Your Name and Suspiria by the same director. He has also worked with other prestigious directors such as John Madden for Miss Sloane, Sally Potter for Molly and Sean Ellis for Anthropoid and Eight for Silver. In 2019, he was nominated for a César award for his work on Alex Lutz’s comedy Guy and later on for a David di Donatello award for Call me by Your Name.