UniFrance has put in place a limited number of grants to help independent cinemas and distributors affected by the pandemic to promote French films.
In the wake of the Covid-related crisis for distribution and exhibition in the US, UniFrance has decided to offer temporary support to US-based art house theaters while also helping US distributors with upcoming French releases.
Cinemas have been hit hard by the pandemic, especially independent ones. Along with operating at reduced capacity or staying closed, theaters have seen a big decline in new big films as releases keep being delayed.
Hence, after discussions with key US industry players, UniFrance has put in place a dozen targeted grants for the exhibition of French cinema. These grants provide recipient cinemas with awards of $2000 to book and innovatively market French films released by US distributors. Applying cinemas are required to have two runs of French majority co-productions (in-theater or virtual) during the first semester of 2021. The majority of the grant needs to be spent on promoting the films in question and is meant to enable cinemas to spend above and beyond their usual practice on promoting the films.
Guidelines are here.
If interested, you need to fill out the application form by Friday, January 15, 2021.
All applicants will receive a response by late January via email.
Contact for any questions :
Adeline Monzier (UniFrance US Representative) : adeline.monzier@unifrance.org