THE PROGRAMMERS AND FILM EVALUATION CRITERIA

The group of Selectors are of different ages and nationalities, authors, filmmakers or experts in the field view over the course of two quarters around 700 films from the Faito Doc Calls for Proposals, proposals or suggestions from a group of advisors and experts from different countries, from discoveries made by the selectors themselves during other International Documentary Festivals. They then select up to 50 creative documentary films (feature, short and ultra-short films) from around 27 countries, by filmmakers whose visions of reality inspire a variety of evasions in us spectators. 

The diverse origins and professionalism of the selectors, their critical sense and in-depth look at particular realities, allow for intense debates and comparisons before providing a final selection of high quality. The poetic and human qualities of the films are always favoured over the quantity of works submitted.

Twice a month, the selectors meet in the house of artistic directors Nathalie Rossetti and Turi Finocchiaro (in presence and in visioconference) and discuss auteur documentary films from direct to experimental cinema, from intimist films to animated documentaries. Both the director’s point of view and the form and originality of the work are taken into consideration, as well as the theme and its multi-senses.

The debates mainly revolve around certain evaluation criteria.

VALENTINA SUMMA (IT)
As a director of photography for fiction and documentary cinema, I work with images to tell stories. I have an intimate understanding of the creative process behind every film, which is always different, always unique. Participating in the film selection was a pleasure for me, offering the chance to discover other perspectives and explore other worlds. In a time marked by conflicts and divisions, the theme of “contact” appears to me as a necessary gesture, an act of resistance, a profound need.

DAVID ÁLVAREZ (CL)
Director, editor, photographer. My relationship with images stems from deep observation and constant reflection. Contributing to the creation of an aesthetic is, for me, a form of thought. Participating in the selection was an experience of listening and discovering the multiplicity of visions of reality. Contact—the most essential element of what it means to be human—was the key to accessing complex realities that often resist a single interpretation.

ELENA LE GOVIC (FR)
I grew up between France and Italy, with a constant passion for cinema and everything related to images. I have completed several projects in this field, particularly sensitive to reality-based cinema. My experience as a selector was a deeply warm and enriching adventure, conducive to the expression of everyone’s emotions and perspectives on these beautiful films.

MARIE VISCOGLIOSI (FR)
As an educational coordinator in Brussels for an association that combats school dropout, she accompanies young people with dedication and curiosity. Passionate about cinema, she has worked in festival organization and is part of selection committees in Belgium and France. She sees in images a language capable of creating connections. The theme of contact resonates with her as an invitation to explore.

ALEX DOMIAN (D/IT)
Art has always fascinated me in all its forms: painting, music, literature, photography, and cinema, which brings them together and transforms them, offering new expressive possibilities. I have cultivated painting, photography, and travel, discovering in art a profound way of questioning life. Being part of the selection group opened up unknown worlds, different perspectives, and surprising connections. This festival is a generous place, capable of uniting differences in a shared celebration of plural visions.

MARIA HERMOSILLO (MEX)
Passionate about Art and Cinema, Maria Hermosillo—of Mexican origin—has lived in Belgium for ten years. She works as a production manager and collaborates as an organizer and selector for various film festivals, including Festival en Ville and KinoLatino in Brussels. “I hope you will be receptive to the program we have created: a selection of feature films and short films with diverse flavors, all united by a special ingredient: ‘Contact’.”

FLORIAN FANIELLE (BE)
I am a young Belgian director and am currently working on several projects, including a feature-length documentary. I had the privilege of being a selector for the 2024 edition and am honored to be so again, especially for such a suggestive theme. Contact is, in a sense, the raison d’être of cinema: a film without contact is a film without an audience. I hope our selection can “touch” the heart of every festival participant.

 

Evaluation criteria :

  • The director’s point of view: the original gaze that the director places on reality, his vision ;
  • The director’s empathy with the people he films and who become his characters ;
  • The cinematographic language: the way of telling, the original way of staging the story told through authentic and surprising shots at the service of the story and which never settle for a simple “reportage”, through personal visual and sound editing, the sense of rhythm and the art of mixing; a poetic, sensitive and original language ;
  • Taking into account the theme of the edition ;
  • Finally, the need to show, through cinema, visions of the historical reality of the human being and the world in which we live, thus choosing films that provoke reflexion, positive “conflicts”, to enrich knowledge and encourage the life journey of each spectator, attentive to both social and environmental issues by retracing the past in the present and in anticipation of the future.