24/06/2011

Abruptly dismissed from his post as delegate general of the Directors’ Fortnight at the start of the week (see news), Frédéric Boyer has given his version of events and delivered a message of warning about the detrimental actions of one section of the French press.

Recalling that the Directors’ Fortnight was founded "to show films where the urgent need to create images was freed, necessarily, from all orders and diktats", that this "spirit of freedom" alone makes it possible to discover talents, "guarantee the survival of diverse cinema and independent creation" and "give it visibility on the market", he believes that "the 2011 selection was the target of a Franco-Cannes war whose primary aim was to make heads roll."

"The fact remains that if these films travel across the world today, it’s because many professionals spotted their boldness, uniqueness and potential to cross borders", he said. "Unlike a certain French press which chose, even before seeing the films, to ignore or attack my selection, the international press played its role and spread the word wonderfully."

As he bowed out, Boyer said he hoped that in the future the French Society of Film Directors would find "the solution for continuing to resist the diktats of a certain press which now only swears by its own, and to renew this contract of independence which makes it so unique and so precious in an increasingly formatted world".

(Translated from French)