18/03/2011

Created in 1962, International Critics’ Week (SIC) will hold its 50th edition from May 12-20, 2011 at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. To celebrate the event and pay homage to the talents who launched their careers there, 13 festivals and cinematheques in eight countries will programme a selection of films discovered in Critics’ Week.

Today, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) kicks off this "world tour" with, among others, Danish director Janus Metz’s sensational documentary Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile] (winner of last year’s Critics’ Week Grand Prize) and French helmer Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Films that have marked the history of Critics’ Week will also be shown in the United States at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; in France (at the Lumière Institute in Lyon, the French Cinematheque in Paris, the Corsican Cinematheque in Porto-Vecchio and La Rochelle Film Festival); in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Modern Art); in Peru (Lima Film Festival - Encuentro Latinoamericano de Cine); in Belgium (Namur Francophone Film Festival); in India (Mumbai Film Festival); in Korea (Pusan International Film Festival); in Thailand (World Film Festival of Bangkok); and Lebanon (Beirut’s Metropolis Art Cinema).

From May 12, the website MUBI will also be offering VOD rental of a few titles selected in Critics’ Week over the last 20 years.

The 2011 Critics’ Week selection is expected to be unveiled on April 18, a few days after the announcement of the Cannes Festival Official Selection (on April 14) and the day before the Directors’ Fortnight programme is revealed.

(Translated from French)