Rookies dominate Cannes Critics Week

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - First-time directors will be center stage at the 48th annual International Critics Week section of the Cannes Film Festival.

The sidebar will open with the debut feature of Mathias Gokalp, "Rien de Personnel" (Nothing Personal), as previously announced. Fellow French filmmaker Nassim Amaouche will screen his dark drama "Adieu Gary," which stars actor-director Jean-Pierre Bacri alongside Dominique Reymond, Yasmine Belmadi, Sabrina Ouazani and Mahmed Arezki.

"It's been an extraordinary year for French cinema. We couldn't have done it any other way," Critics Week artistic director Jean-Christophe Berjon said. "This is the first time there have been so many great French titles to choose from for as long as I've been doing this."

Vladimir Perisic will present his directorial debut, "The Ordinary People," a Franco-Serbian co-production about how ordinary men can turn into monsters.

"What's shocking is that there are very few first films in the official selection or the Director's Fortnight, and Critics Week is pretty much just that. It's great that we can be the ones to really showcase the next generation of filmmakers," Berjon said. "We didn't do it on purpose. The most interesting films we were sent this year were first films."

Other first-timers competing for the Camera d'Or are Belgian helmer Carlone Strubbe with "Lost Persons Area" and Chilean director Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, who brings his story of a rural family in the Chilean countryside to Cannes in "Huacho."

Young Kurdish-Iraqi helmer Shahram Alidi will present his first feature, "Whisper With the Wind," and Alvaro Brechner will bring the Uruguayan-Spanish co-production "Mal dia para pescar."

The only film in the lineup that isn't a debut feature is "Altiplano," the second co-directorial effort from Belgian documentarian Peter Brosens and U.S. helmer Jessica Woodworth ("Khadak"). The duo's film is an Andes-set drama about sacrifice and redemption.

The nine-day event, which runs May 14-22, will close with a double screening of Gregoire Colin's debut short, "La baie de renard," followed by Columbian director Camilo Matiz's "1989," which stars Vincent Gallo and is the only English-language film in the Critics Week lineup.

"A selection almost completely un-Anglo-Saxon is difficult to imagine, but that's how it worked out. We saw a lot of American films, and there were many we liked and considered," Berjon said, adding: "There are only 10 films in competition this year. We wanted to limit the number of films selected so that we could really highlight the new directors chosen."

Critics Week will welcome Spanish filmmakers Juan Antonio Bayona and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo as "Godfathers" of the sidebar. Gabe Ibanez's Spanish title "Hierro" will screen out of competition.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)