Thierry Jobin, responsible for the film section of the Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps since 1998, has unanimously been appointed the director of the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) which will celebrate its 25th anniversary from March 19-26.

He will assume his new role from May 2011 as the successor to Edouard Waintrop, who was named as the new director of the Centre d’animation cinématographique Voltaire (CAC Voltaire) in Geneva last September.

The festival’s president Ruth Lüthi said that she was convinced that Jobin’s “profound experience, his aptitude for critical thinking, as well as his love for the media and the festival will further support the broadening of the programme we have witnessed these past years, while consolidating the festival’s durability and exploiting its extra potential.””

Commenting on his appointment, Jobin reaffirmed FIFF’s commitment to films from the South (Latin America, Africa and Asia): “The FIFF will continue to support filmmakers who depend on the festival as an important stage in their career. Today, it is an ideal platform to confront the digital revolution - which is currently democratizing filmmaking in the whole world - with the redistribution of the geopolitical and economical cards. I will do my utmost to make the FIFF into an outpost for the defence of a rich and diverse offer in the Swiss cinemas, an outpost for filmmakers, the industry, films and their contact with the public -  in short, all of the stakeholders of challenging films and cinéphilie, both on a national and international level.”

Waintrop, who took his post at Fribourg in 2007, will be responsible for the staging of the 25th edition before leaving the festival at the end of March.

Geneva’s CAC Voltaire is one of the main venues for the Cinema Tous Ecrans Festival held each November.

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