Live from Cannes 2011: Introducing the 16 Critics in our 2011 Cannes Critics’ Panel

2011 will be a banner year for us in terms of Cannes coverage, as two regular voices on the site have joined me in reporting on the festival and on the large number of films that the Croisette has to offer. Along with this comprehensive coverage we have the pleasure of hosting what we already anticipate will become an annual tradition on the site: a twice daily critical snapshot of the Main Competition selected films and their bid at claiming the grand-daddy prize of them all, the Palme d’Or.

From as far north as Denmark, as far east as Hong Kong, and as far south as Brazil, we present our 2011 Cannes Critics’ Panel comprised of film critics from around the world with the unique purpose of taking the temperature of the 20 films in the Main Competition — this includes both the out of comp opening and closing night films. During the next twelve days, our critics will supply star ratings which will appear in this handy grid (below) and will then be converted into a final grade. Overall, it acts a barometer/snapshot of what the film critics might like best, and for further reviews you might want to refer back to this page as we provide links to the publications/media they work for, will post the true nuts and bolts of their reactions to each given title.

The process is simple: 12 days, 22 films, 16 film critics and on Day 12 each one of us will provide our list of those we think will take top prizes as in the Palme d’Or, Grand Prix and Jury Prize categories. We’d like to thank all 15 critics have joined us and a special mention goes out to International Cinephile Society President, Cédric Succivalli, who agrees with us, that a long form critical reaction is a preferred response to a film, and like many of us, loves anything to do with lists. For more on each member of our jury, please check out the bios below.

Christophe Beney is the editor-in-chief of the Palmarès magazine website, the only French-language media entirely devoted to film festivals, and he is the co-editor in chief of its quarterly printed version. Former film critic for Les Cahiers du Cinema, he is also an academic and holds a PhD in cinema. This is the eleventh consecutive year that he covers the Cannes Film Festival. On Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisBeney

David Calhoun

Dave Calhoun is the Film editor of Time Out London. He has also written for The Times, The Observer and Sight & Sound magazine in the UK and regularly broadcasts on Sky News and BBC Radio Three and Four. On twitter: twitter.com/davecalhoun

Per Juul Carlsen

Per Juul Carlsen grew up in a small provincial Danish town that had the reputation for producing rope and young farmers fit for fight. It was a perfect setting for escapism and when puberty hit, he considered himself a full-fledged film addict. Since then he has tried to immerse others into seeing films that lend to new worlds, visions and fantasies and he currently does so via hosting a weekly radioshow on film called Filmland on the Danish National Radio in Copenhagen and he is the editor-in-chief for www.dr.dk/filmland.

Paola Casella

Born in Milan but based in Rome, Paola Casella is the film critic for Italian national daily Europa since 2005. She also covers entertainment news for the website of Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore and contributes to CineCritica, the official publication of the Film Critics’ Association of Italy. She served on the Fipresci juries at the Venice, Turin and Lecce film festivals. She is the author of several books on film criticism. Her last one, “Cinema: femminile, plurale”, won the Domenico Meccoli prize as “Best film essay by an Italian author” in 2010.

Andrei Creţulescu

Andrei Creţulescu has been writing about film and music since 1995 for such publications as: VIP magazine (1995-2001), Art&Roll and Sunete (2000-2003), Apropo (2004-2006), REPUBLIK (2005-2008), Time Out Bucharest (2006-2008) and HBO Film Magazine (2004-2010). Since 2007 he’s the film editor for Esquire Romania. Working for HBO Romania since 1998, he’s currently a movie columnist for www.hbo.ro. He writes film articles/columns for cultural magazines such as Dilema Veche, Observator Cultural, KinoKultura, Suplimentul de Cultura, www.liternet.ro. Since 2008, he’s the Artistic Director of the Bucharest IFF.

Carlos F. Heredero

Carlos F. Heredero is a film historian and critic and is the current editor-in-cheif for the Spanish edition of Cahiers du cinéma. A professor of History of Spanish Cinema in the ECAM (School of Film and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid) and ESCAC (Barcelona Film School) he was the writer on four documentaries about film (all directed by Carlos Rodriguez) for Canal Plus: Huellas de un espíritu; Alfred Hitchcock: la ficción sin límites; Orson Welles en el país de Don Quijote (with E. Riambau) y Huston y Joyce. Diálogos con los muertos. His most recent publication, also in the company of Antonio Santamarina, is an investigation of the literary sources of Spanish film, titled: La biblioteca del cine español (2011). He also directed, along with Eduardo Rodríguez, the Dictionary of Spanish and Latin American Cinema (10 volumes).

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, editor-in-chief and film critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric splits his time between his home base in Montreal, NYC, and is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. On Twitter: twitter.com/ioncinema

Fabien Lemercier

Fabien Lemercier is the France & Hungary correspondent and Film Focus coordinator for Cineuropa.org; Italy correspondent for Le Film Français. On Twitter: twitter.com/Cineuropa

Guy Lodge

Guy Lodge is a South African-born critic and screenwriter now based in London. He can be read most frequently at US film website InContention.com, and occasionally contributes to The Guardian’s online division. Recently named one of the 100 Greatest Arts Tweeters by Britain’s The Times newspaper. On Twitter: twitter.com/GuyLodge.

Elisabeth Quin

Elisabeth Quin has been a film journalist at Paris Première for two decades. She has published The tough skin, you’re not the girl your mother’s and Bel night Grasset and Peter in the Wolf (Seuil) and The Book of the Vanities (Editions du Regard). She prepares by Editions Grasset Bi and Main, two hands by Editions du Regard. It runs on Paris Premiere Cine Quin. She has published several books including: La peau dure, Tu n’es pas la fille de ta mere, Bel de nuit, Pierre dans le loupe and Le livre des vanities. She is the host of “Ciné Quin” on Paris Première. She is the head of this year’s Cannes’ Queer Palm jury.

Isabelle Regnier 

Journalist and film critic at Le Monde, Isabelle Regnier also blogs. During the Cannes Festival, she feeds Cannes – The Bubble, and the rest of the year, Film Bazar. She wrote a biographic essay on Tex Avery, and Produire un film, an essay on film production, both to be published by Phaidon / Cahiers du cinema. She directed the documentary film, Take it to the Street, on the online press experience of Rue89. On Twitter: twitter.com/isabregnier

James Rocchi

James Rocchi is a freelance film critic, columnist and interviewer for many outlets, including MSN Movies, IndieWire’s The Playlist, The Toronto Star and Total Film magazine. Born in Canada, he lives and works in Los Angeles, and is a member of LAFCA, the BFCA and the OFCS. On Twitter: twitter.com/jamesrocchi

Cédric Succivalli

President of the International Cinephile Society, Cédric Succivalli has a M-Phil on Crash and Deleuzian Desiring Machines and a MA on My Own Private Idaho. He is a full-time translator, creative writer, performer (Rosalind Crisp company) and film critic. On Twitter: twitter.com/OnTheCroisette

Anne Thompson

Currently the Editor at Large at IndieWIRE.com, Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, “Thompson on Hollywood,” launched in March 2007. Anne was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column “Risky Business” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate. On Twitter: twitter.com/akstanwyck

Clarence Tsui

Clarence Tsui is a Hong Kong-based critic and is the film editor of the English-language daily South China Morning Post. He also teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication.

Eduardo Valente

Eduardo Valente is the founder and editor-in-chief of the site Revista Cinética, a film criticism-based website entirely published in Portuguese. He is also a filmmaker whose short films Castanho (2002), Um Sol Alaranjado (2003), O Monstro (2006) and the feature film Eye of the Storm (2009) were all show at the Cannes Film Festival. On Twitter: twitter.com/revistacinetica