Two French were selected in the Official Competition at the 68th Berlinale (February 15-25, 2018): The Prayer (The Prayer) by Cédric Kahn and Eva by Benoit Jacquot. Other festival sections also featured eagerly-awaited films by directors such as Claire Simon, Jean Paul Civeyrac, Stéphane Demoustier, and Gilles de Maistre. As always, UniFrance was present at the event and provided support services for a large number of French sales companies at our EFM stand.
At the Film Market
This year, UniFrance has provide services for the following 16 French sales companies represented at our stand at the European Film Market (EFM)—one of Europe's biggest and most important film markets, organized in parallel to the Berlin International Film Festival:
Alfama Films Production • Alma Cinema • Artedis • Bac Films • Coproduction Office • France tv distribution • Futurikon • jour2fête • Le Pacte • Les Films du Losange • Loco Films • MPM Premium • Other Angle Pictures • Pyramide International • The Bureau Sales • WTFilms
Our traditional cocktail reception celebrating the opening of the film market took place on February 16, bringing together international distributors, French sales companies, producers, and a host of movie industry professionals from across the globe.
At the Festival
Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel and Julia Roy joined director Benoit Jacquot for the world premiere of Eva, while Cédric Kahn was accompanied by his actors Anthony Bajon, Alex Brendemühl and Damien Chapelle for the presentation of The Prayer (The Prayer).
The French delegation also included Jean Paul Civeyrac and Andranic Manet (A Paris Education), Stéphane Demoustier and Vimala Pons (Cléo & Paul), Claire Simon (Young Solitude), Aminatou Echard (Jamila), and Julien Faraut (In The Realm of Perfection). Cécile de France was a member of this year's competition jury, and Fanny Ardant was in attendance for the presentation of the Swiss TV movie Journal de ma tête by Ursula Meier. Finally, French chef Alain Ducass was in Berlin for the documentary about him, The Quest of Alain Ducasse. As for French short films, Lénaïg Le Moigne presented Clemence's Afternoon.
French films and co-productions at the 68th Berlin Film Festival
Official Competition
- Eva by Benoit Jacquot
- The Prayer (The Prayer) by Cédric Kahn
- The Heiresses by Marcelo Martinessi (minority-French co-production)
- My Brother's Name Is Robert and He Is An Idiot by Philip Gröning (minority)
- Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie (minority)
- Transit by Christian Petzold (minority)
- 3 Days in Quiberon by Emily Atef (minority)
Out of Competition
- Ága by Milko Lazarov (minority)
Panorama
- A Paris Education by Jean Paul Civeyrac
- Land by Babak Jalali (minority)
Forum
- Young Solitude by Claire Simon
- The Son by Alexander Abaturov
- Jamila by Aminatou Echard
- In The Realm of Perfection by Julien Faraut
- Apatride by Narjiss Nejjar (minority)
- Facing the Wind by Meritxell Colell Aparicio (minority)
- Jahilya by Hicham Lasri (minority)
- Maki'la by Machérie Ekwa Bahango (minority)
- Our Madness by João Viana (minority)
Culinary Cinema
- The Quest of Alain Ducasse by Gilles de Maistre
- Ramen Shop, by Eric Khoo (minority)
Generation Kplus
- Cléo & Paul by Stéphane Demoustier
- The Endless Day by Alessia Chiesa (minority)
Panorama Dokumente
- Game Girls by Alina Skrzeszewska
- Kinshasa Makambo by Dieudo Hamadi
- Central Airport THF by Karim Aïnouz (minority)
- I See Red People by Bojina Panayotova (minority)
Short Films - International Competition
- Young Girls Vanish by Clément Pinteaux
- Le Tigre de Tasmanie by Vergine Keaton
- City of Tales by Arash Nassiri
