Jury

& ceremony' master

Discover the jury of the 29th International Adventure & Discovery Film Festival of Val d’Isère, taking place from April 13 to 16, 2026.

Made up of personalities from the worlds of adventure, cinema and exploration, the jury will evaluate the 11 films in competition and award the festival’s different prizes.

Aventure Découverte > The festival > Jury

Master of Ceremonies

Sylvain Tesson

Born on April 26th, 1972, in Paris, Sylvain Tesson studied geography and geopolitics under Yves Lacoste before choosing a life dedicated to writing and long-distance travel. An tireless explorer, he has cycled around the world, crossed the Himalayas on foot, ridden through Central Asia on horseback, and retraced the escape route of Gulag prisoners from Siberia to India. He has also investigated the oil industry in the Caucasus and Anatolia and participated in humanitarian and archaeological missions in Afghanistan.

His adventures in Russia’s Far East, Mongolia, the Himalayas, and Tibet have inspired more than a dozen travelogues, essays, and short story collections. Among his most notable works are Une vie à coucher dehors (Gallimard, winner of the 2009 Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle and the Académie Française short story prize), Dans les forêts de Sibérie (Gallimard, winner of the 2011 Prix Médicis Essai), and La Panthère des neiges (Gallimard, winner of the 2019 Prix Renaudot). He has also hosted the television show Montagnes on France 3, regularly contributes to Le Figaro Magazine, and produces documentaries for France 5.

A passionate climber, reader, and horseman, Tesson spent six months living in a cabin in Siberia, an experience he chronicled in Dans les forêts de Sibérie (Gallimard, 2011). His latest book, Blanc (Gallimard, 2022), recounts an alpine adventure. In 2024, he was awarded the Prix Combourg for his book Avec les fées.

President of the Jury

Jean-Marc Rochette

Jean-Marc Rochette has been a comic book and graphic novel author and illustrator for more than forty years. Also a painter and sculptor, he was born in 1956 in Baden-Baden and grew up between Grenoble and the Vénéon valley.

Deeply shaped by the mountains, he once dreamed of becoming a high-mountain guide before a tragic accident brought that ambition to an abrupt end. This defining experience, which he recounts for the first time in Ailefroide, also runs through his graphic novel La Dernière Reine. Published by Casterman in October 2022, this story blending love, art and nature received Lire magazine’s Best Book of the Year award.

Alongside his work in comics, Jean-Marc Rochette has also developed a literary career. After a first acclaimed novel, he continues this path with Le Festin de pierres, his second novel.

Matthieu Tordeur

Explorer

Matthieu Tordeur

Explorer

Matthieu Tordeur is an explorer and member of the Société des Explorateurs Français. He has led expeditions in more than 100 countries, crossing deserts, oceans, mountains and polar regions.

He travelled around the world in a 4L to promote microfinance, ran six marathons in a row across the Sahara Desert, crossed Europe twice by bicycle and sailed across the Atlantic. In 2019, he became the first Frenchman and the youngest person in the world to reach the South Pole solo and without resupply (Guinness World Records).

Committed to climate action and spokesperson for the Cryosphere Pavilion at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in 2025, Matthieu has led several educational expeditions in the Alps, the Pamir, Greenland and Antarctica. A passionate communicator, he regularly speaks in schools, companies and at international conferences to share his field experience, raise awareness of glaciers and polar regions, and explain the crucial role they play in the Earth’s climate and ecosystems.

His expeditions serve as platforms to raise awareness of environmental challenges. As founder of the Association 90° SUD, he works alongside the scientific community to collect data, raise awareness and encourage action.

Salomé Cholet

Highline athlete

Salomé Cholet

Highline athlete

Salomé grew up at the foot of the cliffs, where the void teaches you to face fear and trust your body. From an early age, she turned to extreme sports and aerial disciplines, driven by the desire to explore her limits and push beyond them.

Today, she continues along this path as a committed athlete, motivated by performance, progress and a taste for challenge. Every training session, every project and every run is for her a way to live intensely, stay free and turn passion into a driving force in life.

Elodie Suigo

Radio and TV journalist

Elodie Suigo

Radio and TV journalist

Elodie Suigo is a radio and television journalist renowned for the quality of her interviews and widely regarded as one of the best interviewers in the cultural field. She has been working at Radio France since 2005 and now hosts Le Monde d’Elodie on France Info, one of the country’s most listened-to programmes, where she presents a daily portrait of a public figure. From Sting to François Hollande, Bruce Springsteen, Marc Lévy, Michel Bussi, Juan Pablo Escobar and Asia Argento, she enjoys sharing stories, anecdotes and life experiences.

A former high-level tennis player, she also created the programme L’Esprit sportive, dedicated to women’s sport, and regularly appears on television.