Hippocrates, A Place on Earth and Breathe are the winners of MyFrenchFilmFestival.com 5th edition, a success despite censorship in China.
The 5th edition of the online French film festival organized by Unifrance from 16 January to 16 February 2015 registered an increase in screenings across the majority of platforms participating in the event. The latest edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival.com did, however, suffer from censorship applied at the start of the year in China, with restrictions on the distribution of foreign works via the country’s VoD platforms.
In total, the festival recorded 560,000 screenings during the month-long event from 207 territories. The festival offered the best of young French cinema through 10 short films and 10 feature films via the site myfrenchfilmfestival.com and 26 partner platforms.
MyFrenchFilmFestival Award Winners 2015
(the five winning films will be available on Air France flights for six months from summer 2015)
Prix Chopard from the Cineastes jury, presided by Michel Gondry with Joachim Lafosse (Belgium) and Nadav Lapid (Israel)
Hippocrates by Thomas Lilti
Prize money of 15,000 euros from Chopard, official partner of the 5th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival for the film’s director, sales company, and producer
Lacoste Audience Award (more than 15,000 votes counted)
Feature film: A Place on Earth by Fabienne Godet
Short film: A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar (Belgian coproduction)
International Press Award (attributed by six foreign film journalists)
Feature film: Breathe by Mélanie Laurent
Short film: Extrasystole by Alice Douard
Key figures of the 2015 edition:
• A total of 560,000 screenings, up from 380,000 in 2014 (excluding China)
• No screenings in China due to a tightening of censorship, whereas the 2014 edition of the online festival saw a record in screenings there
• All other territories saw an increase (730,000 visits to the MyFrenchFilmFestival platform, nearly 3 million pages viewed)
Top five territories in terms of visits, from a total of 207 (compared to 204 in 2014):
1/ Mexico
2/ Brazil
3/ France
4/ Poland
5/ Colombia
• The number of registrations on the myFrenchFilmFestival.com platform reached 137,000 (up 40% over 2014), with a combined 250,000 screenings (up 20% over 2014).
Among the 13 languages available for screening films, Spanish was most in demand, followed by English, Portuguese and French.
• There was a significant increase in screenings this year in Latin America and on VoD platforms in Eastern Europe, with 150,000 screenings on VOD.pl in Poland (up 100%) and 100,000 in Russia and Ukraine on Megogo (up 100%).
• The number of fans on the festival’s Facebook page increased by 100,000 in one month, to a total of 272,000 (up 50% over 2014).
• The festival trailer, directed by Michel Gondry, has accumulated 2.2 million views worldwide to date.
MyFrenchFilmFestival is organized by Unifrance Films with the support of the CNC, the SACD, the Institut Français, Telefilm Canada, Wallonie Bruxelles Images, the Alliance Française, the Cavilam, and its partners: Renault, Chopard, Lacoste, Air France, LVT, France Médias Monde, TV5 Monde, Eurochannel, Télérama, Le Monde, So Film, and Variety. UniFrance films would especially like to thank the many French embassies that supported the festival.
The festival concept
MyFrenchFilmFestival.com is a festival of French film that takes place entirely online, and which, over the course of one month, offers web audiences around the world a selection of 10 short films and 10 feature films by first- or second-time directors which were released in French theaters during 2014 but which have not been seen abroad. This initiative provides emerging directors with global visibility, and showcases the diversity of French production from a younger generation. Organized by UniFrance films, the festival is available in 13 languages: the web site and the films are available in 13 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
