The President, the Committee and the Director of the Fribourg International Film Festival announce the engagement of film critic Edouard Waintrop as programmer for the 2008 edition. He will officially take office at the beginning of September 2007.

Edouard Waintrop:
Born June 3, 1952 in Suresnes, Hauts de Seine, France.

After studies in economics, he worked for six years (from 1974 to 1980) in the socio-cultural sector as head of cinematographic and jazz programming in Montreuil, in the Paris suburbs.

In 1982 he joined the newspaper Libération in the cultural sector.

A film critic since 1986, he wrote several articles on the cinema for Libération and various collective works.

For years he also covered numerous documentary and heritage film festivals in Europe as well as fiction film festivals in North and Latin America.

His interests include, amongst others, the new Argentine cinema, classic Mexican cinema and Japanese thrillers. He has written about Hou Hsiao Hsien, Alejandro Gonzales Iñaritu, and Edward Yang. He has also written a good deal on Lubitsch, John Ford, Billy Wilder, João Pedro de Andrade, Otar Iosseliani, Satyajit Ray as well as Souleymane Cissé and Ousmane Sembene, two directors whom he saw at work in Africa.

Along with his activities around the cinema, he also writes historical works.

He speaks French, English, Spanish and a bit of Italian.