With the event now in its 18th year, UniFrance is once again hosting the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris (January 14-18), the world's leading film market and press junket dedicated exclusively to French films: participants this year include 400 film buyers and 100 foreign journalists from 40 countries, with 84 films presented and 40 sales companies and 110 French artists in attendance.
Held in the French capital over five days, this event will bring together international distributors and French sales companies, as well as journalists from around the world who will meet with French actors and directors from films that are eagerly-awaited abroad in 2016.
THE WORLD'S LEADING FRENCH FILM MARKET
Between January 14 and 17, 400 distributors from 40 countries will be in Paris as guests of UniFrance, France's international film promotion body, to discover 84 French films, with 57 of these titles presented in world premieres by 40 French sales companies. These annual meetings represent the largest market for international French film sales.
The opening film to be presented at this market reserved for movie industry professionals will be the comedy by Thomas Sorriaux, A Mighty Team, produced by Source Films. This special screening will be held in the presence of the film's creative crew, as well as UniFrance president Jean-Paul Salomé and our executive director Isabelle Giordano.
4 DAYS OF INTERVIEWS WITH FILM JOURNALISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
This year, 100 film journalists from 40 countries (predominantly European states) will be in attendance from January 18 through 18 at the Grand Hôtel Intercontinental to meet with French artists, who will take part in promoting French films that are scheduled for release in various countries across the globe between February and June, 2016. This event is the world's biggest press junket devoted to French films, at which around 1,000 interviews will be held this year. The following actors and directors, among others, have confirmed their presence at this "Rendez-Vous" event, which has stamped itself as a key annual event for foreign media: Kev Adams, Mathieu Amalric, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Louise Bourgoin, Claude Brasseur, Isabelle Carré, François Cluzet, François Damiens, Arnaud Desplechin, Anne Fontaine, Catherine Frot, Louis Garrel, Robert Guédiguian, Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Jacquot, Claude Lelouch, Vincent Lindon, Fabrice Luchini, Maïwenn, Gaspar Noé, Jacques Perrin, Bruno Podalydès, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Christian Vincent, and Elsa Zylberstein.
A REVIEW OF FRENCH FILMS IN INTERNATIONAL THEATERS IN 2015 and THE PRESENTATION OF THE "FRENCH CINEMA AWARD" TO THE MAKERS OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
At 7 p.m. on January 15 at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UniFrance will present the results of French films in international theaters in 2015 at a press conference to be held in the ministry's offices at the Quai d’Orsay in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius.
Including box office results, attendance figures, key statistics, and a summary of the performance of French productions around the world in 2015, this presentation will provide an opportunity to review the success of French films in numerous countries and to present a progress report on changes and developments in the geographical distribution of movie admissions.
Also at this press conference, the French Cinema Award, a new prize created with support from the Cristallerie Saint-Louis, will be presented to Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassam (from the production company On Entertainment) in recognition of the exceptional performance of the animated film The Little Prince in many international markets in 2015.
By creating this new prize, UniFrance wishes to regularly pay tribute to a movie industry personality who has contributed to raising the profile and visibility of French cinema around the world.
After Dimitri Rassam and Aton Soumache, another French Cinema Award will be presented in the spring of 2016 to La Pekang, President of China Films, and in April, a key figure in the Italian movie industry will be honored during the Rendez-vous – Nuovo cinema francese.
LAUNCH OF THE 6TH EDITION OF MYFRENCHFILMFESTIVAL.COM
During a gala ceremony held at the Eiffel Tower on January 17, the 6th edition of the world's leading online French film festival, MyFrenchFilmFestival, will be launched in the presence of this year's jury members (whose names will be announced during the evening) and the crew members from the films in competition.
From January 18 through February, web users around the world will be able to discover these talented French filmmakers—emerging stars or established veterans—thanks to a selection of 10 feature films and 10 shorts that will be competing for the Chopard Filmmakers' Prize and the Lacoste Audience Prize via 37 partner platforms (an increase from 25 in 2015). This year's festival also features a section dedicated to documentaries. The festival is available for viewing free of charge in many countries across the globe, including in Africa, Latin America, Poland, Romania, and Russia.
ROUND TABLE AND PRESENTATION OF A NEW UNIFRANCE STUDY
As part of the 18th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, UniFrance will be hosting, on January 18 from 7.30 p.m. at the Grand Hôtel Intercontinental, a presentation of a study conducted on the key genres of French cinema that have achieved the greatest export success in the past twenty years. This will be followed by a round table on the theme of "Producing for the International Market?" held in the presence of numerous French producers and moderated by Laurent Cotillon, chief editor of Le Film Français.
