A 10-day festival with 21 feature films screened, 50 special guests, 10,000 spectators, and close to capacity crowds in theaters for many screenings: 2016 has been an excellent year for the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.
The 21st edition of the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York took place from March 3 through 13, 2016. Serving as a forum for exchange and dialogue and a key opportunity to raise the visibility of French films in the United States, this festival organized by UniFrance in collaboration with Lincoln Center, has created a dynamic platform in the US movie scene over the past twenty years. This year, this success resulted in the acquisition of three additional French titles by American distributors: Mon roi (Film Movement), The Great Game (Distrib Films), and Fatima (Kino Lorber).
A host of French actors and directors were present at the event, including Isabelle Huppert & Guillaume Nicloux (who presented Valley of Love as festival opener) Maïwenn, Alice Winocour, Louis Garrel, Julie Delpy, Diane Kruger, Eva Husson, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Bercot, Emmanuel Finkiel, Nicolas Pariser, Arthur Harari, Rudi Rosenberg, Michale Boganim, and Danielle Arbid. These artists led master classes, with captive audiences demonstrating their enthusiasm for French cinema, held at Lincoln Center as well as in the university circuit (Universities of Fordham, Purchase, Columbia, and NYU).
The focus event entitled "French Touch" provided the opportunity to host an HBO talk about French and American composers (Mathieu Lamboley, Grégoire Hetzel, Nicolas Jaar, Morgan Kibby, and Mark Snow), while two "French Waves" evening events were held, the first at the Cultural Services offices of the French Embassy, hosted by Pedro Winter, and the second at the Le Bain rooftop bar, in the presence of Pharell Williams.
Three screenings were organized for school students, attended by 900 children and teenagers from Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens, the vast majority of whom had never seen a French film. The children were shown the subtitled version (specifically chosen not to be a dubbed version) of Nouveau, screened in the presence of its director Rudi Rosenberg, who took part in discussions after the screening, with the audience raising many questions.
Finally, the strong synergy developed with the New York International Children Film Festival is strengthening, with the inclusion in this year's program of five French films aimed at young audiences (Belle & Sebastian, the Adventure Continues..., Adama, Phantom Boy, April and the Extraordinary World, Long Way North).
This festival benefited from support from our partners Lacoste, Renault Nissan, Air France, Piper Heidsieck, and TV5 Monde.
The photo gallery of this year's event can be viewed on the web page of the 2016 Rendez-Vous.
