The Fondation Plaza Board is deeply pleased to announce the appointment of Fabien Gaffez as General and Artistic Director of the Plaza Centre Cinéma. Currently the Artistic Director of the Forum des Images in Paris, he will take up his new position on September 1, 2025.
The project, career, and personality of Fabien Gaffez impressed the highly selective international jury assembled by the Fondation Plaza. With his extensive experience as a programmer and his deep passion for knowledge sharing, Fabien Gaffez embodies a vision that aligns perfectly with the Plaza’s ambitions. His appointment already promises a programming that can bringing together a broad and diverse local and international audience, breathing new life into this historic and emblematic venue in Geneva.
A philosophy graduate, Fabien Gaffez has taught film history and aesthetics. From 2011 to 2016, he was the Artistic Director of the Amiens International Film Festival, with which he had been collaborating since 2004. He was also the programmer for the Orson Welles Cinema (Maison de la Culture d’Amiens) and coordinated the short film selection committee of the Cannes Critics’ Week from 2013 to 2016, after having been part of the feature film committee for three years. A critic for the renowned film magazine Positif, he has authored several books, including a monograph on Orson Welles. Since 2016, he has been the Artistic Director of the Forum des Images, a pioneering institution in film and digital media in Paris, where he has curated programming around four artistic disciplines—cinema, immersive creation, graphic novels, and video games.
Fabien Gaffez will assume his new role on September 1, 2025, and will oversee the programming of the Plaza Centre Cinéma, which is set to open its doors at the end of 2026.
“The ambition, modernity, and love of cinema embodied by the Plaza Centre Cinéma project immediately captivated me. I am thrilled to contribute to this remarkable endeavor in its reconstruction,” announces Fabien Gaffez. He continues: “My goal is to return this legendary theater to the people of Geneva and to write, together with them, the next chapters of its rich history. The city of Geneva speaks to me profoundly, and I am excited to make it my home. The new Plaza’s programming will embrace pop culture, fostering a dialogue between cinema and other popular arts—a creative pop culture that mirrors its architecture, where boldness, aesthetics, and inventiveness coexist.”
For this strategic selection process, Jean-Pierre Greff, President of the Fondation Plaza, convened a jury composed of members of the Foundation’s Board, Emmanuel Cuénod, Director of the Digital Creation Hub, actress and director Natacha Koutchoumov, former co-director of the Comédie de Genève, and filmmaker and screenwriter Carmen Jaquier. They were joined by external experts: Manon Desseauve, Director of the Louxor Cinema in Paris; Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier; and Olivier Père, General Director of ARTE France Cinéma and Head of ARTE France’s Cinema Unit. It is worth noting that Fabien Gaffez was selected from over 140 candidates from 10 different countries.
“Fabien Gaffez comes to Geneva with remarkable experience and a project whose relevance and scope deeply impressed the jury,” states Jean-Pierre Greff, President of the Fondation Plaza. “He has already demonstrated an astonishingly sharp understanding of the Plaza project’s challenges and a strong desire to anchor it within the cultural landscape of Geneva and the Romandy region, a scene he is already growing fond of. With an ability to contextualize cinema’s history while keeping the audience’s emotional and intellectual enjoyment at the forefront, Fabien Gaffez will lead a project that is both unique, innovative, and unifying.”
Photo credit: Laurie Bisceglia