Critics’ Week, the strand dedicated to first and second films which runs along side the Cannes Film Festival, will be hosted in a revamped venue starting this year for the 59th edition.
The Miramar theater, where films and shorts selected for Critics’ Week are being screened, is being completely remodelled by the city of Cannes, under the initiative of a philantropist, whose identity has not been identified.
The remodelling, which kicked off last month, will aim at redesigning the venue as well as increasing its room capacity to 420 new seats. The seating plan is also being modified in order to ensure a better viewing experience, along with the technical conditions which are being optimised.
As part of the makeover, the Miramar theater will be insulated to provide improved acoustics and will be equipped with Dkaudio tailor-made speakers and Dolby Atmos-ready equipment. The screen, meanwhile, will also be swapped with a micro-perforated screen for improved picture quality. All the technical work carried out at the Miramar theater is undertaken by experts from 2AVI, a company that’s already been tapped to work on the Cannes film market venue.
The renovated Miramar theater will be inaugurated during the opening ceremony of Critics’ Week on May 13. The sidebar will wrap on May 21.
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Critics’ Week is headed by artistic director Charles Tesson. Last year’s selection included Jérémy Clapin’s animated feature “I Lost My Body” (pictured) which won the Nespresso Grand Prize and went on to earn an Oscar nomination. Over the years, Critics’ Week has played a key role in turning the spotlight on promising directors who went on to earn worldwide acclaim, notably Wong Kar-wai, Guillermo del Toro, Jacques Audiard, François Ozon, Gaspar Noé, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Andrea Arnold, Jeff Nichols and David Robert Mitchell.