Unifrance and France Médias Monde are to strengthen their partnership in promoting French cinema around the world.
Isabelle Giordano, executive director of Unifrance, and Marie-Christine Saragosse, chair and CEO of France Médias Monde, signed a partnership framework agreement in Cannes on Monday, May 16, 2016, with the aim of formalizing existing collaboration between the two parties and developing new common projects.
With the signature of this agreement, UniFrance and France Médias Monde—the state-run audiovisual group that brings together overseas broadcasters Radio France International (RFI), France 24, and Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCA)—express their commitment to developing a close cooperation in their shared mission to promote French culture around the world.
This agreement notably formalizes reciprocal arrangements regarding the visibility of the UniFrance-organized Online French Film Festival, MyFrenchFilmFestival. It also provides for the introduction of jointly devised program sections on the performance of French films in the five continents in the program "Tous les cinémas du monde" broadcast on RFI, the program "À l'affiche" on France 24, and "Le Journal de la Culture" broadcast on Monte Carlo Doualiya. According to the agreement, the editorial staff of France Médias Monde will be closely associated with international operations conducted by UniFrance. Additionally, in order to raise awareness specifically among young audiences, UniFrance and France Médias Monde will collaborate together on the programs "Mashable avec France 24" and "RFI Savoirs."
UniFrance
For more than 65 years now, UniFrance has devoted its expertise and experience in international markets to serving French cinema. Based in Paris, UniFrance also has representatives in New York, Mumbai, Beijing, and Tokyo, and brings together a membership of 1,000 French movie industry professionals (producers, directors, actors, artists' agents, sales agents, and so forth), who work together to promote French films to audiences, professionals, and media representatives across the globe. Every year, UniFrance organizes around a dozen international industry events that place the spotlight on French cinema, and supports over 200 movie industry events across all continents. Thanks to UniFrance, around 370 trips by French artists were organized abroad in 2015 aimed at fostering interaction and exchanges between foreign audiences and French artists, including directors, actors, screenwriters, composers, who represent the richness and diversity of French cinema.
France Médias Monde - Watch and Listen to the World
The group in charge of French international broadcasting services, France Médias Monde comprises the continuous trilingual news channel France 24, Radio France International (RFI), and the universalist Arabic-language radio station Monte Carlo Doualiya. These three media services are broadcast from Paris to the five continents, in 15 languages. Journalists from the group and its network of correspondents offer listeners, viewers, and web users comprehensive coverage of world events, with a focus on cultural diversity and contrasting viewpoints, via news bulletins, reports, in-depth programs, and debates. 66 nationalities are represented among the group's employees. Each week, RFI, France 24, and Monte Carlo Doualiya attract around 100 million listeners and viewers (measured in less than one third of the countries in which France Médias Monde broadcasts). The group's three media services attract 30 million visitors per month on their new media platforms (average figures for 2015), with almost 40% of these visits made to services provided in foreign languages. They attract 35 million followers on Facebook and Twitter (December 2015). France Médias Monde is also a shareholder and partner of the French-language general interest TV channel TV5MONDE.
