Frédéric Boyer has been named head of programming at Iceland’s Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF).
He replaces Giorgio Gosetti, former head of Venice sidebar Giornate degli Autori, as RIFF’s main programmer.
Boyer will continue to hold positions as artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Les Arcs European Film Festival.
Other members of RIFF’s programming team include festival director Hrönn Marinósdóttir, Guðrún Helga Jónasdóttir, Ana Catala and Gosetti, who will remain part of the committee.
Boyer’s ambitions for the festival include adding more films about artists to documentary section A Different Tomorrow.
“RIFF is a fantastic way to showcase Iceland and its talents, and creates an essential network for Icelandic filmmakers,” said Boyer, a long-time supporter of Icelandic cinema who has visited RIFF several times in the past.
“Working with the RIFF programming team, I want to programme films I like - as simple as that. I’ll try to bring my sensibility to the programme as well as to sometimes introduce controversial topics. Just showing a film is not that interesting. The main thrill is to create an interaction between the filmmakers and the audience.”
Boyer, a former artistic director of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, splits his time between Paris and New York.
He added: “Movies can give a great platform to important topics such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, and environmental issues. The topics of the films are important for sure, but even more important is the quality and how the films make us feel. When this goes hand in hand with the symbiosis between the audience and filmmakers, we have the perfect combination.”
RIFF is set to run September 24 to October 4 and organisers are confident it will be hosted as a physical event.
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