UniFrance has put in place a limited number of grants to help independent cinemas and distributors (both in anglophone Canda and Québec) affected by the pandemic to promote French films.
In the wake of the covid-related crisis for distribution and exhibition in Canada, UniFrance has decided to offer temporary support to Canada-based art house theaters while also helping Canadian 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 films as releases keep being delayed.
Hence, after discussions with key Canadian distributors, UniFrance has decided to reallocate some of its talents travel funds towards a dozen targeted grants for the exhibition of French Cinema in the coming months. These grants provide recipient cinemas with awards of CAD 2500 to book and innovatively market French films released by Canadian distributors.
Applying cinemas are required to have two runs of majority French films (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 Wednesday, February 10, 2021.
A panel of distributors will review the applications and select the grantees. All applicants will receive a response by late February via email.
Contact for any questions :
Jean-Christophe Baubiat – Territory manager for Canada at UniFrance:
jean-christophe.baubiat@unifrance.org
