Launched in 2000, the Festa do Cinema Frances showcases each October a selection of the latest French feature films not as yet released in Portugal, presented in preview screenings. This year's event will extend to four national cities, with a program including 32 titles.
This festival offers a rich panorama of the current year's French film production. All film genres are represented, including comedies, dramas, crime stories and thrillers, animated films, family-oriented films, and sci-fi, aimed at general audiences of all ages. The fact that the festival line-up features a large number of co-productions (particularly Portuguese), without such alliances many of these films could not have been made, naturally lends a strong European and international flavor to the event, as well as contributing to the preservation of cultural diversity. The program includes debut films by emerging directors, current hits and the latest films featuring French and international stars.
The major partners in this event are the town councils in host cities, the full range of Portuguese distributors, the Gan Cinema Foundation, Gan Seguros, Portuguese Radio Television (RTP 1 and A 2), TV5, RFI-Radio Paris-Lisbon, the daily newspaper "Publico" and "Premiere" magazine, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, Peugeot, Cofidis, Alcatel, Nestlé, the Sofitel Lisboa, and Unifrance, along with the Alliance Française in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Faro.
Since its inception, the Festa do Cinema Frances has invited prestigious delegations of French artists and industry professionals to the event. From 2000 to 2004, many of the bright lights of the French movie scene have made the trip to Portugal to participate in the festival. This year's festival will feature the presence of Costa-Gavras and José Garcia in Lisbon, and Brigitte Roüan in Coimbra.
During the opening night ceremony and throughout the festival in Lisbon and Porto, a tribute will be paid to Portuguese Film Schools, with a special focus on the ESTC film school. This sidebar event will establish new links and promote dialogue between Portuguese and French film schools (the FEMIS and the ESAV in particular), and, more generally, will encourage young people to turn their attention toward the diversity and high quality of European film production at this time.
Coinciding with the festival, the Cinemateca Portuguesa will also be holding a tribute to the acclaimed French actress Fanny Ardant, with the screening of two films selected by Ms. Ardant; and the Franco-Portuguese Institute will be presenting 8 screenings of feature films from the festival selection. And finally, discussion-meetings will be held on four afternoons from October 10 through 13 as part of the festival's tribute to the ESTC National Film School, at which up-and-coming Portuguese and French filmmakers will get together over screenings of their first films. These meetings are open to all audiences.
Further information is available online at: www.festadocinemafrances.com
