Pacific Cinematheque's Jim Sinclair to become a Knight of France

by Craig Takeuchi on October 28th, 2011 at 11:31 AM

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The Pacific Cinémathèque will soon have a French knight at its helm.

The Cinémathèque's executive and artistic director Jim Sinclair is set to become a Knight of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (the Order of Arts and Literature).

The French government is bestowing the honour upon Sinclair for his extensive, long-term efforts to bring French and European cinema to British Columbian audiences.

His contributions have included providing numerous retrospectives of acclaimed French directors (including François Truffaut, Jacques Tati, and many more) at the Cinémathèque as well as his organization of the annual European Union Film Festival (which will commence this year on November 25).

Sinclair has been the artistic director of the Cinémathèque since 1988 and became its executive director in 1991. He has previously worked as the director of the National Film Theatre of Edmonton and was a founding member of the Audio Visual Heritage Association of British Columbia. He has also served on a large number of awards juries, including for the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Whistler Film Festival, DOXA, BC Arts Council, Canada Council, Toronto International Film Festival's Top Ten, and Vancouver's Mayor's Arts Awards.

The Consul General of France Eveline Decorps will present the honour, on behalf of the French Ministry of Culture, at a private ceremony at the Cinémathèque on November 8.

Félicitations to Monsieur Sinclair!

You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at twitter.com/cinecraig.