Isidore Bethel

Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker whom Filmmaker named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020.[1] His first feature film as director, Liam, premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival in 2018 and received the Jury Prize in the Documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival.[2][3] He edited and associate produced Of Men and War, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival,[4] won the VPRO Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, received a Best Documentary nomination at the European Film Awards,[5] and screened at the Museum of Modern Art's Documentary Fortnight.[6] He also edited Dominique Cabrera's Grandir, which received the Cinéma du réel's Potemkine Prize,[7] edited and produced Juan Manuel Sepúlveda's La Balada del Oppenheimer Park, a Best Documentary nominee at the 59th Ariel Awards,[8] and has worked with Jean-Xavier de Lestrade.[9] Critics have characterized his editing as demonstrative of "admirable restraint,"[10] "Wiseman-esque,"[11] and "elegant."[12]

A graduate of Harvard University, the École Normale Supérieure,[13] and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,[14] Bethel has received grants from the Institut Français,[15] France's Île-de-France region,[16] the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation,[17] and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation[18] as well as support from Berlinale Talents,[19] IFP,[20] Film Independent,[21] and Eurodoc.[22] He has taught film at Sarah Lawrence College in Paris and at Parsons Paris.[23]