Champs Elysées Film Festival 2022: Interview of Artistic Director Justine Lévêque
We had the pleasure of chatting with Justine Lévêque, who has been showcasing the best of French and Americain indie cinema since 2015, as Artistic Director of the Champs Elysées Film Festival.
On June 21-28, 2022, the 11th edition of the Champs Elysées Film Festival took place on the prestigious Parisian Avenue. There was a lot on the menu for the latest edition of the festival, one of the largests in Paris, which is dedicated to showcasing the best of French and American independent cinema. Besides the flagship French and American film competitions, the festival hosted as guests of honors director Ari Aster and composer Dan Deacon. As every year, the festival also managed to attract prestigious actors of the French film industry: as such, actress Emmanuelle Bercot served as president of the feature length films jury, meanwhile director Anaïs Volpé led the short film jury, to name but a few. On top of that, we were thrilled to sit down with artistic director Justine Lévêque to reflect on the festival’s DNA and evolution, as well as to chat about this year’s film selection.
Hi Justine! What is your role at the Champs Elysées Film Festival? And tell us about this year’s lineup?
Justine Lévêque: I joined the Champs Elysées Film Festival as artistic director in 2015, in the midst of the preparation of the 4th edition of the festival. Since then, I have been working year-round for the festival, where I oversee the editorial line. I also compose the juries along with Sophie Dulac, the founder and president of the festival. On top of that, I build the music program, as well as a special parallel section which I consider my ‘baby’: this year, it is entitled ‘Freed from Desire’. It is a tribute to the few female filmmakers in the 90s who rolled up their sleeves and made movies that looked like them, with the courage of bringin up topics that were unspoken and invisible at the time. It’s a pop and bold section!
While working on this year’s selection, we noticed some specific topics which emerged post-pandemic, as we were reviewing the submitted films. As a result, I feel like this year’s selection revolves aroud the topic of love. We can feel the need for people to get back together, to question what friendship, family and love are… Following two years of lockdown and its social injustices, we can observe consequences on the creation. In the selection committee, we all agreed that the movies we were seeing expressed a desire to emerge from chaos, come together again, and show solidarity and sorority.
Tell us about how you developed the identity of the Champs Elysées Film Festival?
Justine Lévêque: We have accomplished a lot, along with the team and president Sophie Dulac, in the past few years: we opened the French feature-length film competition, we have been inviting prestigious jury members, we opened a music program, and we have also been claiming our independence as a festival. By doing so, we also shaped the festival identity along the way, which was not easy as a Parisian festival. What did Paris and its cinephiles need? With its extremely rich cultural life, Paris is already a permanent festival! Paris is also the city of cinema. Setting up a film festival in Paris, and especially on the Champs Elysées was also quite a challenge. It is a very crowded Avenue where most people do not come here to attend the festival. Besides those challenges, we benefit from the appeal of Paris and the fact that most French artists reside here, which allows us to catch them should they be available.
We are only 11 years old, but I am happy to observe that we have been developing this festival as a platform for young creators to meet and showcase their work. For a week, we are able to gather the best of American and French independent cinemas, and to offer our audience masterclasses, exlusive retrospectives of our guests of honor… By the way, we are beyond excited to be able to attract excepetional guests! I remember that in 2019, when we managed to have Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken and Kyle MacLachlan as guests of honor, many other independent festivals, older than us, were amazed that we managed to have them. They came to us asking “How come did you manage to have them? We’ve been trying for years!”. Even though I am in favor of collaborating between festivals, and I don’t see ourselves as competitors.
The CEFF is basically one week of discoveries and encounters. We are called Champs Elysées Film Festival, but the strength of our festival is that we are the opposite of what one may think of us: here, it’s all about walking the red carpet in jeans and sneakers!
We are one of the largest film festivals in Paris, and we take great pride in welcoming special guests, showcasing a number of national premieres, and bringing the voices of the new generation of French and American creators who astound us with the subjects they tackle and the mastery of their cinematic language to the fore.
We also hope to serve as a link between France and the United States, whose filmmakers have both benefited from and been influenced by each other’s work since the invention of cinema. In this light, it is amusing to hear French filmmakers list American directors as their favorites. And the reverse as well. Additionally, we make an effort to create selections that celebrate the diversity of both countries and people. We do not only want films using New York or Paris as the setting. We aim to send viewers to places like Texas, the Californian coast, Florida, etc. New imaginaries that depart from stereotypes, popular imagery, or preconceived notions about those places are what are being proposed. We find it exciting to design those selections as journeys for our audience. This year, our French competition brings us to places like Corsica or the Calanques of Marseille. Ironically, there is probably not even any movies this year set in New York or Paris!
The festival received hundreds of film submissions, making the selection incredibly difficult. But we never forget that our festival is focused on the audience. Additionally, it is our goal to spread access to high-quality independent film. By providing an overview of French and American productions and demonstrating that independent cinema is not limited to dramas but also includes romantic, horror, and adventure movies, we hope to demonstrate that anyone can taste and enjoy independent cinema. Documentaries, animated films, and experimental movies… These genres are all represented in our selection.
