During an extraordinary General Assembly, the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) Association has unanimously appointed Thierry Jobin as the new director of the Festival while granting him a mandate of three years. He will assume his new function in May 2011. Thierry Jobin will thus take the place of Edouard Waintrop who was named director of the Centre d’animation cinématographique Voltaire (CAC-Voltaire) in September 2010.

Ruth Lüthi, the Festival’s president, is delighted with the choice: “With his profile, his passion for cinema and film, his winning commitment and the originality of his ideas, Thierry Jobin has utterly convinced the Board of the FIFF. I am convinced that his profound experience, his aptitude for critical thinking, as well as his love for the media and the Festival will further support the broadening of the programme we have witnessed these past years, while consolidating the Festival’s durability and exploiting its extra potential.”

Thierry Jobin commented his appointment in the following terms: “I am happy and proud to succeed to the two ex-directors, Martial Knaebel and Edouard Waintrop, thanks to whom the FIFF enjoys a huge popularity and a vast potential. To this date, the 24 editions of the Festival have fundamentally challenged our notion of the South whilst transforming our knowledge of so-called “films from the South”. The FIFF will continue to support filmmakers who depend on the Festival as an important stage in their career. Today, it is an ideal platform to confront the digital revolution – which is currently democratizing filmmaking in the whole world – with the redistribution of the geopolitical and economical cards. I will do my utmost to make the FIFF into an outpost for the defence of a rich and diverse offer in the Swiss cinemas, an outpost for filmmakers, the industry, films and their contact with the public – in short, all of the stakeholders of challenging films and cinéphilie, both on a national and international level.”

Thierry Jobin has been responsible for the film section in the Swiss daily Le Temps since its foundation in 1998. At the age of 16, he began writing film reviews for various newspapers and radio stations. Following an arts degree at the University of Fribourg, he was hired by the daily Le Nouveau Quotidien to cover the FIFF in 1992. This mandate sparked off a professional career in journalism that has lead M. Jobin to a wide range of activities: head of programming and organiser of films festivals in the Jura and Biel/Bienne, correspondent for film festivals all over the world, lecturer for film reviews, jury member, expert and editor for radio and television programmes, as well as Web features. Born in 1969, Thierry Jobin is married and has three children. He lives with his family in Lausanne.

Thierry Jobin will take up his new functions on May 1, 2011. As a member of a two-headed managing team, he will assume the artistic direction of the FIFF as well as the general direction of the Festival together with secretary general Esther Widmer.

The current director of the FIFF, Edouard Waintrop, is fully responsible for the upcoming 25th edition of the Festival (March 19-26, 2011) and shall leave his functions at the end of March 2011. The General Assembly thanked him for his outstanding achievements with a massive round of applause, and strongly emphasized his significant contribution to the development and positioning of the Festival during his four years in office.