It was with indescribable emotion that Fumiko Hayashi, politician and mayor of Yokohama for nearly ten years now, received as a gift from UniFrance a single-edition photograph of Alain Delon (taken by the French photographer Philippe R. Doumic in 1963), which the movie star had autographed as a surprise for Ms. Hayashi. This special gesture attests to the strong and friendly connections between the City of Yokohama and French cinema. Indeed it is in this city that the French Film Festival in Yokohama was created twenty-seven years ago.