June 21: Opening of the 26th French Film Festival in Japan

Three hundred people received permission to welcome the artistic delegation on the red carpet, taking photographs and requesting autographs. The red carpet was set up at the entrance to the Minato Mirai Concert Hall, a vast concert hall in Yokohama that has been transformed into a movie theater for the event.

Preceded by Serge Toubiana, UniFrance president, and our executive director Isabelle Giordano, the festival delegation included Swann Arlaud, Hubert Charuel, Coralie Fargeat, Julie Gayet, Anne-Dauphine Julliand, Xavier Legrand, Olivier Nakache, Anne Fontaine, Finnegan Oldfield, François Ozon, Mélanie Thierry, Éric Toledano, and, of course, Nathalie Baye, patron of the event, who was accompanied by the Japanese actress Takako Tokiwa, who is the "muse" of this year's festival.

On stage, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, a partner of the festival, was joined by the Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda (winner of the 2018 Palme d'Or at Cannes for Shoplifters), Fumiko Hayashi, mayor of Yokohama, and Laurent Pic, the French Ambassador in Japan, who made their introductory speeches before giving leave for cinema to express itself, with the screening of the opening film, C'est la vie!, presented by its directing duo, Toledano and Nakache.

Earlier in the day, in Tokyo, the second and final day of French Film Market wrapped up, at which around forty Japanese distribution companies came to meet with twenty French sales companies, who had traveled to Japan to present their film slates. In sum, the 360 meetings scheduled over this two-day event will decide which French films will hit Japanese screens in the upcoming year. In 2017, 60 French films were released in Japan.