Gilles Jacob (born 22 June 1930) is a French film critic and essayist, who served as president of the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

between 2001 and 2014.

Life and career

Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, the son of an entrepreneur, Jacob studied at the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

, having

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

as a schoolmate. At 17 years old he co-founded a short-lived cinema magazine, ''Raccords''. He then collaborated as a film critic and journalist with several publications, including ', ''

Les Nouvelles littéraires ''Les Nouvelles littéraires'' was a French literary and artistic newspaper created in October 1922 by the Éditions Larousse. It disappeared in 1985 after having taken the title '. History ''Les Nouvelles littéraires'' were headed by from 1922 ...

'' and ''

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

''. In 1976 he was named deputy delegate general of the

, before becoming delegate general in 1978, and finally becoming president of the festival from 2001 to 2014. He stayed in the festival's board of directors until 2018, and since then he served as member of the General Assembly of the festival. Among his initiatives, were the foundation of the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

selection, the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight or International Critics' Week The International ...

award, and the

Cinéfondation La ''Cinéfondation'' is a foundation under the aegis of the Cannes Film Festival, created to inspire and support the next generation of international filmmakers. It was created in 1998 by Gilles Jacob. Since then it has developed complementary ...

. During his career Jacob received various honours and accolades, notably the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

. He served as a juror at the

47th Venice International Film Festival The 47th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 4 to 14 September 1990. Jury The following people comprised the 1990 jury: *Gore Vidal: head of jury *María Luisa Bemberg *Edoardo Bruno *Gilles Jacob * Kira Muratova *Omar Shari ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Gilles 1930 births Living people Writers from Paris French film critics French essayists French film historians Male essayists 20th-century French writers 20th-century French male writers 20th-century essayists Cannes Film Festival people