Arrival of Andréa Picard at the artistic direction of Cinéma du réel

The Bibliothèque publique d’information at the Centre Pompidou and the Association Les Amis du Cinéma du réel are glad to announce Andréa Picard’s arrival at the Artistic Direction of the Cinéma du réel festival.

Andréa Picard, curator at the Toronto International Film Festival, succeeds Maria Bonsanti who brilliantly directed the festival for five years.

“At the time of leaving this great adventure, my thoughts go to the team, because together we managed to achieve the objectives we had set for the festival. Andréa Picard’s nomination is a strong sign of the attention paid to the international dimension and the quality of the programming. It opens up exciting prospects for the future.”

Film programmer, critic and independent curator, Andréa Picard has worked since 1999 for the Toronto International Film Festival where she was a longtime programmer at Cinematheque Ontario, and for whom she oversees Wavelengths — a program dedicated to experimental and avant-garde film, essays and documentaries. She regularly publishes on independent cinema and has organized numerous retrospectives and exhibitions in North America and in Europe.

“I am delighted and deeply honoured to join the team of Cinéma du réel — a cinephilic, socially engaged festival, which acts as an important meeting place for filmmakers, and which presents the latest developments in documentary film with one eye toward history and one toward the future. I greatly anticipate continuing the tremendous work done by Maria Bonsanti and further expanding the festival’s international reach, especially at such an auspicious, exciting and urgent time for documentaries.”

Andréa Picard is at Cannes Film Festival, from 17 till 28 May 2017.