In this engaging interview, Amir Ganjavie of Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal converses with Julien Rejl, the Artistic Director of Cannes‘ Directors’ Fortnight. Julien, who took over this esteemed role in 2022, shares insights into the selection process, the philosophy behind programming, and the challenges faced by film festivals today. With a rich background in film production, distribution, and sales, Julien brings a unique perspective to Directors’ Fortnight, aiming to blend blockbuster appeal with artistic innovation. This discussion touches on themes of equality in film selection, the impact of political contexts, and the evolving landscape of cinema in a post-pandemic world.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you tell me a little bit about the selection process for your festival? Do you have programmers? Who makes the final decision?
Julien Rejl (JR): The final decision is made by me, but I compose a selection committee of about six or seven people. You have to add some consultants that are based in different countries. Let’s say that we are a team of 10 to 12 programmers, depending on the time of the year, I decided to form my committee according to the background of the people I’m working with. I wanted to mix film critiques, exhibitors, people coming from cinematheques, and festival programmers. Because I want to have different perspectives and different gazes on the films. We opened the submission in November and we watched films until the beginning of April. We received more than 50% of the film in March, that’s why it’s completely crazy. In total, we received 1600 feature films and 2000 short films, and we see most of them through links, and some of them in DCP in the theater. When we are in the theater, it’s all the committee together, and when we watch links, everyone is watching films at home.
(UM): I heard you are mostly looking for radical films.
(JR): It depends on what you call radical, but no. I’m interested in cinema as a unique language. To me, cinema is not a language, but the way a filmmaker tries to express himself or herself in a film could be unique, and this approach to the narrative of storytelling through composition, editing, lighting and photography, and the direction of actors it’s what I really like. I’m not looking for radical films because the spectrum of films in the Directors’ Fortnight is very open. My dream is to bring together on the same day a blockbuster film with a very artsy film. I think the selection of this year represents, gives a good idea of the different kinds of creativities all around the world.
(UM): And suppose a film is submitted to you from a well-known distributor vs a film from an unknown filmmaker, will they get the same consideration?
(JR): The idea of the Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, it’s also non-competitive selection, it’s to consider every film and every filmmaker with an equal chance. First, we see the film, then we negotiate. When the negotiation process starts, of course, it’s more challenging when you have a lot of partners because they know everybody, and they want to increase their visibility. They want to have a better place in Cannes. But it doesn’t have an impact on the selection we want to make. We privilege the writing and approach, and if it belongs to a huge sales agent, it will have the same chance as the one sent by the filmmaker, who is the producer at the same time.
(UM): I heard there is not a very direct collaboration or relationship between you and the official selection, and sometimes, they pick the movie, and you don’t know until the last moment, and you need to wait to see…
(JR): Not exactly. Of course, we don’t have, an ongoing relationship to talk about the films because I think it’s important to have some privacy, some strategy, to compose a selection. Because it’s not like you receive a film that you want to invite, to invite the film the day after. You need to compose, you need to see a lot of films first, and then when you have a short list of films, you think in terms of balance, in terms of which films to take. If you select one film, which other film could you associate with it? And you try to have the biggest contrast. So, it takes time. And, when you talk with producers and distributors, usually it’s very transparent. You know very quickly if the official selection is also interested in the film. You know if Critics’ Week is interested in the film. All the information is shared very quickly. It’s important, because we react to this kind of information, and try to make the strategy evolve over time, but there is a lot of competition.
(UM): One of the challenges I’ve been hearing with festivals is the instability of the work with people working part-time. Is this the situation at Cannes?
(JR): Let’s say that globally in France, there is a huge problem of precarity for people working in festivals, and it affects programmers, technicians, people from the organizations, everyone. And there is a new law in France, reforming unemployment. With the new law, the amount of this money has decreased. So, for people who have short contracts working in festivals, when their contract finishes after the festival, for instance, they know that they are going to earn much less. It concerns all of us at the festival because we all have short-term contracts. So, it’s a major problem that we need to face. We are calling for the mobilization of all people working in French festivals, to try to make the government give us a new status.
(UM): I’ve heard that the number of films directed by women to festivals is still very low, like 90 films by women to 2000 films by men, is that the same for Cannes?
(JR): We received about 30% of films directed by women only.
(UM): And are you aiming to have a 50/50 gender parity selection? Or are you more interested in quality? How are you trying to balance this?
(JR): First of all, I think our job as a festival programmer is to create parity with a 50/50 committee because our job is to evaluate the film, and it’s at the stage of evaluation that we need to have these different gauges. But for the films, we can’t do anything about the production because we just receive films, and it’s very difficult to make a selection of 20 films with demanding films having a great sense of artistic direction. This is our main concern, to achieve the selection with the most beautiful films possible. So, if we add a new criteria, of having 50/50 in the selection, I think it will be against the quality of the selection. I wish it would happen because I’m sure in a few years, as more and more films directed by women are going to be produced, the balance is going to change. But if we were to use some quotas, today, we talk about men and women, but maybe tomorrow, we will talk about…
(UM): Asian versus European.
(JR): Yes, but also people that are non-binary, etcetera. So, it’s a lot of criteria, and if we have to take that, it’s impossible to do the job.
(UM): And how important are political factors in your decisions? For example, how do you evaluate movies from Russian or Iranian filmmakers? Are you trying to take into account the political situation, or the funding situation when you decide?
(JR): I defend the artists. I consider the individuals more important than the countries they represent. I think it’s very, very important, especially in this world with everything happening so terribly on each continent, to listen to each voice coming from countries in difficulty or war like the ones you mentioned. Because in each country, maybe there is someone who wants to claim something different, and if we just decide not to see their films, we leave them alone. When we watch a film, we don’t take into consideration the nationalities or the genre. All these criteria are discussed after seeing the film. And if we find a masterpiece (or a very good film) then in the selection committee, we bring to the table the subject and try to understand if it makes sense or not, to bring it to the selection. Again, I want to say that I want to defend the liberty of speech, expression, and creation. These are the most important values to me.
(UM): And when you are talking about freedom of expression, suppose I’m a filmmaker, and I’ve made a very beautiful movie, but it’s anti-abortion, will you consider this movie?
(JR): It’s difficult to say yes or no because each film is so singular. It’s important to make a difference between the message of the film, and how the film is made. Some films have a conservative or sometimes a reactionary approach, but it’s not the most important thing in the film.
Some films are made for the message. Usually, I don’t like films when they are mainly made just to convey a message. But when the film is made for artistic reasons, and sometimes, there is some reactionary message, well, you have to debate. You have to talk about it with your committee to see if we could invite the film and at the same time say we disagree with the director. I think it’s my job if I bring such a film to Cannes when I introduce it to the audience to say, “We love this director as an artist. We don’t share the point of view of the film, but we can debate.” And I think debates are important in democratic countries. I’m not a censurer. I’m against censorship.
(UM): I see that both you and the Cannes Film Festival selected a French comedy for the opening movie. I’m curious, what was the reason that you picked a French film? Because sometimes, I feel that French festivals are promoting a lot of French Cinemas.
(JR): I agree with you. I love Sophie Fillières’ films, so I’m not going to say that I have regrets. But theoretically, I agree to say that we also have to, especially, in Fortnight, make special events like opening and closing with International Cinema. But for the opening film, you have to find one that will have a special impact because it’s the opening. This year, I talked a lot with different producers and writers of International Films, with importance in terms of industry, in terms of market, and who gives a signal to open to different kinds of audiences. But it’s very difficult actually. This year and last year, we opened with a French film, but hopefully that will change in the future.
(UM): Do you have a vision for the future of the festival?
(JR): My dream is that you have films with different scales of production, commercial films, and arthouse films, with strong filmmaking. The quality is not going to decrease. But I think it’s important in terms of audience, in terms of considering that cinema can also be entertaining to bring people together in Directors’ Fortnight along with the most different kinds of movies. So, it could be Blockbusters, could be small documentaries, could be more animation. I want to have the most different kinds of films in the Fortnight. We prospect even more each year to get films that are not used to going to Cannes anymore, and we want to bring them to the Fortnight.
(UM): This democratic selection of films is that why you introduced audience voting?
(JR): Yes, exactly. Historically, the Directors’ Fortnight has always been open to all kinds of audiences, you don’t need to have an accreditation to participate in Fortnight. You can buy your tickets, and you can come from anywhere in the world. We also have these very terrific Q&A sessions at the end of each film with the directors and sometimes, part of the cast and the crew. We value the participation of the real public for directors because they need to have some feedback about their films.
The idea this year was, I wanted to involve the audience further, to say, “Vote, but we don’t ask you to vote for the best film or just the film that you feel more comfortable with. We ask you the go through the territory you are not used to, to vote for a film that was so surprising, or maybe disturbing, bold. The film you are ready to support, to encourage a filmmaker to continue making films.” At the same time, it’s the idea of what the mission of Directors’ Fortnight is. And we wanted to make it like a spiritual guide. And as this year, I wanted to honor Chantal Akerman’s American Stories, I told the foundation we also were creating this new people choice and, “Would [they] like to be the partner, to send the signal that we see the mentor of this edition is Chantal Akerman.”
© 2020-2024. UniversalCinema Mag.