The director Olivier Babinet joins the jury of the national competition
He became widely known in France with the series Le Bidule (The Thingamajig), broadcast on Canal+ in 1999.
In 2008, he made his first short film, C’est plutôt genre Johnny Walker(It’s More Like Johnny Walker), which garnered numerous festival awards, including the Special Jury Prize at Clermont-Ferrand.
(C’est plutôt genre Johnny Walker – 2008)
His feature film, Robert Mitchum est mort (Robert Mitchum Is Dead), which he co-directed with the photographer Fred Kihn, was presented at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in the ACID Programme
The film took home the Grand Prix at Angers’ Festival Premiers Plans and was nominated for the best first film at London’s Raindance Festival.
In addition to his activities as a screenwriter and director, for two years Olivier Babinet worked with middle-school students in Aulnay-sous-Bois in an area where 50% of the families live beneath the poverty line.
One result of the collaboration were eight fantasy and science fiction short films made by the children.
While working with them, Babinet gradually developed the idea of making a documentary about them.
He ended up living with the kids for four years, leading to Swagger, his most recent feature-length documentary which hit screens on 16 November 2016 and which has subsequently been selected by several festivals.
Discover the trailer of Swagger :
Olivier Babinet is a member of the artists’ collective WE-ARE-FAMILIA and has directed a number of music videos among them Toy Boy by Stuck in the Sound.
He is also a contributor to the New York magazine Chalet, where his partially imaginary diary, “Desire & Disillusion” is published as a series of episodes.
He is currently working on a new feature-length fiction film, POISSONSEXE (FISHSEX), produced by Masa Sawada.
