Cannes Encyclopedic: Insights from Film Professionals

Youna de Peretti has been a casting director in Paris since 2010, active in both cinema and television in France and across Europe. She has supported numerous debut films and discovered young talents, including Daphné Patakia (OVNI(s)) and, more recently, Théodore Pellerin (Nino) and Manon Clavel (Kika). Several films she has worked on have been selected and awarded at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals, as well as at the César Awards. In 2025, four feature films presented at Cannes owe their casting to her: Nino by Pauline Loquès, Classe Moyenne by Antony Cordier, Kika by Alexe Poukine, and Love Me Tender by Anna Cazenave Cambet. Her credits include Le Ravissement by Iris Kaltenbäck, À plein temps by Eric Gravel, Jusqu’à la garde by Xavier Legrand, Jeune femme by Léonor Serraille, and Victoria by Justine Triet. On television, she cast the series OVNI(s) (Canal+). Also collaborating internationally, notably with Maria Schrader, she is a member of ARDA and ICDA (casting associations), of the European Film Academy (EFA), and participates in the César Awards’ Révélations Committee.

Graduated from École Nationale Louis Lumière, Nathalie Durand has worked in documentary and fiction cinema for many years. After 15 years as an assistant camera operator on over 30 feature films, she now serves as a director of photography. Nominated for the 2018 César Award for Jusqu’à la garde, the film later won Best Film at the 2019 César Awards. She teaches regularly at La Cinéfabrique, La Fémis, and ENSLL and recently worked on Le Dernier Souffle (Costa-Gavras, 2024) and Cinq Hectares (Émilie Deleuze, 2023).

Trained at ENSAD (Paris), Chloé Cambournac designs sets for features, shorts, and TV fiction. Active in the ADC and APC (César Awards), she promotes diversity, inclusivity, and creativity in cinema. A founding member of Eco Déco Ciné, she also leads eco-design workshops. Recent work includes Partir un jour (Amélie Bonnin) and Les Femmes au balcon (Noémie Merlant).

French composer Valentin Hadjadj trained at the Conservatoire de Lyon and CNSMD de Lyon, earning a Master’s in composition for film. Winner of the Best Young European Composer at the 2012 World Soundtrack Awards, he first composed for short films, including Lukas Dhont’s L’Infini. He scored his first feature, April and the Extraordinary World (2015), and gained international recognition with Dhont’s Girl (2018), Caméra d’Or at Cannes. He recorded Themes and Variations with Deutsche Grammophon and recently composed for Le Dernier des juifs (2024) and Close (2022).

Independent editor, director, and screenwriter based in Berlin, Clémentine Decremps studied at the Sorbonne and La Fémis. She has collaborated with Wim Wenders (Emotion, Présence, Perfect Days) and other international artists, favoring non-linear storytelling inspired by the visual arts. In 2023, she directed The Birth of Naikee and Cimex Lectularius. Her work has screened at Cannes, Centre Pompidou, Venice Biennale, TIFF, Palais de Tokyo, Grand Palais, and Lyon Biennale. She has also worked with leading production companies and global brands such as Adidas, Vogue, and Warner Music.

British composer Natalie Holt won Television Composer of the Year at the 2024 World Soundtrack Awards and is the first woman to score a live-action Star Wars project (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Disney+). She is known for Loki (Marvel), Wallander (BBC), Knightfall, Rivals (Disney+), and Fever Dream (Netflix). She co-scored Journey’s End with Hildur Guðnadóttir and collaborated with Martin Phipps (The Crown) and Hans Zimmer (Woman in Gold). Trained at the Royal Academy of Music and NFTS, she is an accomplished violinist and violist and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.