Paolo Moretti appointed head of the ECAL Cinema Department

Director and programmer of festivals, notably of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival, Paolo Moretti will take over the responsibility of the Cinema Department of ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne in September 2022. He will succeed Pauline Gygax as head of the Bachelor Cinema program and Lionel Baier for the Master Cinema program (co-directed by HEAD Geneva).

"I am above all very grateful to ECAL for offering me this opportunity. I am excited to continue the work initiated by Lionel Baier, then Pauline Gygax and to confront myself with a new dimension of the transmission of the codes and languages of contemporary cinema", says Paolo Moretti.

After studying modern literature, between 2001 and 2008, Paolo Moretti worked for several film festivals and institutions in Europe, including the Centre Pompidou, the Filmoteca Española, the Cinemateca Portuguesa, the Leeds Film Festival and Cinéma du Réel. From 2008 to 2011, he was assistant to the director and programming advisor at the Venice Film Festival. In 2012 and 2013, he is a programming advisor for the Rome Film Festival (CinemaXXI). Since 2012, he has been collaborating with the Visions du Réel festival (Nyon), first as a member of the selection committee (2012-2017), then as an artistic advisor. From 2012 to 2018, he is also a member of the selection committee of FIDMarseille. He is the associate producer of the American independent feature film L for Leisure by Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn, presented at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2014. Between 2014 and 2020, he works as a director of the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival and of the art house cinema Le Concorde. Between 2018 and 2022, he is the general delegate of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival. Since 2020, he has been the director of the art house cinema Les Cinémas du Grütli in Geneva, where he will be able to continue to carry out his mission in conjunction with ECAL, thanks to a redistribution of tasks, notably administrative, of the Geneva institution.

"Paolo Moretti has an exceptional network and a rich and varied international experience, punctuated by numerous successes. Through his desire to constantly highlight the films of young talent, he has established himself over time as a valuable and privileged interlocutor for filmmakers and the industry. I am sure that his approach as an outstanding facilitator will suit our students perfectly and will lead them to progress even further and to surpass themselves", says Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL Director.

For the Bachelor Cinema program, Paolo Moretti will replace Pauline Gygax - who will keep a part of her teaching at ECAL, but will concentrate primarily on her activity as a producer, the intensity of which obliges her to reduce her workload within the Cinema Department. As for Lionel Baier, co-director of the Master Cinema program, he will continue his career as a director, while also maintaining a teaching schedule at the Lausanne school. ECAL would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all their work and for having contributed to the fact that its film courses are considered among the best internationally.

Contacts
- Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL Director: alexis.georgacopoulos@ecal.ch
- Pauline Gygax, current head of the Bachelor Cinema: pauline.gygax@ecal.ch
- Lionel Baier, current co-head of the Master Cinema: lionel.baier@ecal.ch