The 6th edition of the online MyFrenchFilmFestival, organized by Unifrance from 18 January through 18 February 2016, recorded its greatest success since the event's creation.
A record number of viewings were registered for UniFrance's online film fesival offering the best of emerging French cinema through 10 features and 10 shorts on the myfrenchfilmfestival.com site and the event's 37 partner platforms.
The 2016 Awards
(the winning films will be shown onboard Air France planes for six months from summer 2016 onwards)
Chopard Directors Award*
Awarded by a jury presided over by Nicolas Winding Refn, and composed of Marjane Satrapi, Felix Van Groeningen, Valérie Donzelli, and David Robert Mitchell.
- Alleluia, a Franco-Belgian film by Fabrice Du Welz
*an endowment of 15,000 euros by Chopard – the official partner of the 6th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival – for the film's director, exporter, and producer.
Lacoste Audience Award
25,000 online viewer votes
- Feature: Sand Castles by Olivier Jahan
- Short film: Grounded by Alexis Michalik
International Press Prize
Awarded by the journalists Melanie Goodfellow, Mauro Donzelli, Joan Z. Shore, Alex Vicente, and Anne-Marie Mergier.
- Feature: Heatwave by Raphaël Jacoulot
- Short film: Sunday Lunch by Céline Devaux
Important points of the 2016 edition
- A total of 6.5 million viewings in 2016 (compared with 560,000 in 2015 and 4 million in 2014)
- A proposition of films (features and shorts) stranded into four themes to enhance the appeal for online viewers around the world.
- 37 partner platforms (versus 22 in 2015), including iTunes in 90 countries, Google Play in 15 countries, Mubi, Amazon Instant Video (USA, Germany, Japan), Qubit (Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina), Universciné (France), Telefonica, Filmin (Spain), Orange (Roumania, Luxembourg), Megogo et Ivi.ru (Russia, Ukraine), and TV5Monde (USA)…
Top 5 countries registering the highest number of visits from 205 territories:
Top 5 features the most viewed:
- 1/ It Boy
- 2/ Summertime
- 3/ Blind Date
- 4/ All About Them
- 5/ Sand Castles
Top 5 short films the most viewed:
- 1/ Last Door South
- 2/ Life's a bitch
- 3/ Grounded
- 4/ M Seeking W
- 5/ The Wanderer
Among the 10 subtitle languages offered with film viewings, Spanish is at the top of the list, followed by English, Portuguese, and French.
For Isabelle Giordano, Executive Director of UniFrance, "This success can be explained by the increased number of platforms, but also without a doubt by the selection of a jury of filmmakers highly implicated in this experence of digital distribution and renowned for their strong opinions. The selection of films, arranged by theme this year, also played an appealing role for audiences abroad."
"For the first time in MyFrenchFilmFestival's history, the winner is a Franco-Belgian film, presented thanks to a partnership with Wallonie-Bruxelles Images. We take the opportunity, through the awards, to thank our Belgian and Quebec partners - their films were very popular. French language productions are a vital asset in promoting French cinema throughout the world," Jean-Paul Salomé, President of UniFrance, explained.
MyFrenchFilmFestival is organized UniFrance, with support from the CNC, SACD, lnstitut Français, Telefilm Canada, Wallonie-Bruxelles Images, Alliance Française, Cavilam, AEFE, and its partners: Renault, Chopard, Lacoste, Orange, Air France, TitraFilm, France Médias Monde, TV5 Monde, Eurochannel, Télérama, Le Monde, So Film, Variety, Little White Lies, and Allociné/Webedia. UniFrance would especially like to thank the many French embassies abroad which supported the festival.
