Olivier Pére dirigirá Locarno

Se la tenía guardada... Pasó por Buenos Aires y no dijo nada, al menos públicamente. Pero hoy se confirmó que desde 2009, el director artístico de la Quincena de Realizadores del Festival de Cannes será el director del Festival de Locarno.

Aquí, el informe de prensa (en inglés) enviado por el festival suizo.

Olivier Père, Locarno Festival’s future Artistic Director.

The Board of the Locarno International Film Festival, at an extraordinary meeting on September 25th, appointed Olivier Père, currently in charge of the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, as the new Artistic Director for the Locarno Festival, who will start at the end of next year’s festival (5-15 August 2009). He will succeed Frédéric Maire, who, as was announced last June, will become head of the Swiss Cinémathèque on 1st November, 2009.

Born in 1971 in Marseilles, a French national, Olivier Père graduated in Humanities at the University of Sorbonne (Paris IV). He joined the French Cinémathèque in 1995, and soon became in charge of the programme, organizing numerous retrospectives and thematic seasons. Alongside his work there, in 1996 he began a long-standing collaboration with the Belfort « Entrevues » Film Festival, for whom he organized retrospectives. Since 1997 he has been writing for the cultural publication “Les Inrockuptibles” on film, television, and DVD. Since 2004, Olivier Père has been Artistic Director of the Directors’ Fortnight, the prestigious independent section at the Cannes Festival, organized by the SRF (Société des Réalisateurs de films).

Marco Solari, Festival President notes: “A young and enthusiastic cinéphile, Olivier Père knows all that is involved in programming inside out, and has spent years heading up a section that is closest to the nature of the Locarno Festival, which has always focused on young cinema, discovery and experimentation. I am delighted with this choice.”

Olivier Père commented on his appointment as follows: “My responsibilities as Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival will allow me to continue the work of discovery and valorisation of young auteur cinema that I have undertaken for Directors’ Fortnight since 2004. They will also enable me to fulfil an obligation, born of admiration, to directors who are essential to film history, and major figures who have contributed to the development and influence of film. Finally, the post offers an opportunity to exercise, a wider scope than previously possible, my conviction that a festival must above all rally to the cause and render service to the cinema and to those who make it.”

Olivier Père will assume his post as the Locarno Festival’s new Artistic Director on September 1st, 2009.