Jury of Artists

The Jury of Artists will award three prizes (€13,000, €8,000, and €5,000), granted by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, and may also give special mentions to finalists of their choice.

Sidonie Duret – Dancer and choreographer
Noémie Goudal – Artist and photographer
Julie Guibert – Dancer
Caroline Guiela Nguyen – Playwright and stage director
Mette Ingvartsen – Dancer and choreographer
Vimala Pons – Actress, writer and stage director
Salia Sanou – Dancer and choreographer

Sidonie Duret

Sidonie Duret is one of the three choreographers of Collectif ÈS, alongside Jérémy Martinez and Émilie Szikora. Since 2011, they have co-created works continually driven by the need for a collective practice and the social role it can play. Since January 2025, they have been in charge of Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans. At the same time, Sidonie Duret has worked with choreographers such as Maud Blandel, Boris Charmatz, Olivia Grandville, Tatiana Julien, and Linda Hayford. She studied the work of David Zambrano and is particularly interested in improvisation, which she explores with live musicians.

Noémie Goudal

Born in 1984, Noémie Goudal lives and works in Paris. She creates illusionist installations, staged within the landscape and subsequently transposed into films, photographs and performances. The artist’s perspective focuses on multiple angles of understanding and observation of our natural environments. By dissecting the layers and perspectives of an image, she questions our mental constructions of the landscape. Through a perfect balance between realism and constructed fiction, her images elevate the scientific foundation from which they never stray.

Julie Guibert

Julie Guibert has performed with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, the Ballet of the Opéra National in Lyon, as well as for choreographers Christian Rizzo, Maryse Delente, and Mélanie Perrier. She has been the director of the Ballet of the Opéra National in Lyon (2020–2023) and artistic director of ELAN, the equal opportunities school in Lyon supported by the CN D (2023–2025). Today, she works with Pierre Pontvianne, develops projects for the Collection Lambert in Avignon, and collaborates with the collective Marseillais solidaires des morts anonymes in the creation of funeral rituals.

Caroline Guiela Nguyen

Caroline Guiela Nguyen is a French writer, director, and filmmaker. In 2012, she founds the company Les Hommes Approximatifs, through which she has developed a body of work centered on the major narratives of our contemporary world. Her writing and artistic practice focus on those who are excluded from our time. She quickly became associated with some of Europe’s leading stages, including Théâtre de la Colline, Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Piccolo Teatro, the Schaubühne, and Théâtre de Liège… She has notably created SAIGON, LACRIMA, Kindheitsarchiv, and Valentina. Since 2023, she has been directing Théâtre national de Strasbourg and its school.

Mette Ingvartsen

Mette Ingvartsen is a Danish choreographer and dancer. Her company is based in Brussels. Her internationally reclaimed work is characterized by hybridity and engages in extending choreographic practices by combining dance and movement with other domains such as visual arts, music, language and theory. Besides performing, writing and lecturing, her practice includes teaching and sharing research through workshops with students at universities and art schools. In 2024 she received the lifetime achievement award from the Danish Arts Foundation.

Vimala Pons

Vimala Pons is a multimedia and transdisciplinary artist, trained in competitive sports, art history, cinema, and music. A renowned actress, she has notably collaborated with Alain Resnais, Bruno Podalydès, and Paul Verhoeven. She gained recognition with La Fille du 14 juillet and has also appeared in Vincent doit mourir and L’Attachement, a role that earned her the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. On stage, she develops a performative practice centered on emotional introspection and imbalance. In 2022, she created Le Périmètre de Denver, followed by Honda Romance in 2025.

Salia Sanou

Salia Sanou, choreographer and director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Nantes (CCNN) since January 2026, trained in theatre in Ouagadougou before turning to dance, and in 1993 joined Mathilde Monnier at the CCN of Montpellier. In 1995 he co-founded the company Salia nï Seydou with Seydou Boro, and in 2010 created Mouvements perpétuels. His work, presented in France and internationally, places at the heart of dance the notions of relationship, transmission, and the circulation of cultures. In Nantes, he envisions the CCNN as an open, vibrant, and inhabited space, attentive to encounters between generations, audiences, histories, and territories.

Jury of the Young

Since 2020, students from the Cycle Préparatoire à l'Enseignement Supérieur (CPES) of Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris (CRR) have taken on the role of jury members for the competition. The winner is then invited to adapt their piece for the ensemble.

Nicolas Barry was the first awarded artist, followed by Ioanna Paraskevopoulou in 2022. In 2024, the winners, Production Xx, transformed their piece Gush is great into a true human tide, adapting their project for 40 CRR students. This version was presented during the Focus Jeunes Créateurs at Théâtre des Abbesses in September 2025.

In 2026, twenty students from the three streams (classical, contemporary and jazz) and, for the first time, from the theatre track of the CPES programme, form the Jury Jeunes - the jury of the young - for this 9th edition. An opportunity to hone their critical thinking and their ability to debate and discuss works.

See you at Théâtre de la Ville - Les Abbesses in 2025 to discover the work of the artist they have chosen!

With Laura Annede-Leray, William Boulay-Itela, Issa-Gabriel Camara, Claire Caucal, Junior Douville, Léon Gauthier, Héloïse Grappin Schmitt, Apolline Gueguen Caillié, Maia Hoibian Valentine Humbert, Noé Lavandier, Lou Miel, Mia Orobio-Besson-Magdelain, Tiana Rajaomaria, Cloé Sahone-Billot, Elinoa Sieradzki Sprung, Toscane Swinburne, Salomé Yamin Ruiz Tratman