Located on the Pantiero Esplanade, Club Unifrance will host numerous professional meetings and collaborative work sessions this year from May 17 through 28.
On May 18, Unifrance President Margaret Menegoz will be bringing together the major foreign buyers of French films to give them the opportunity to meet with French producers and exporters right from the start of the festival. Ms. Menegoz will also be arranging meetings between French producers and their Russian and Japanese counterparts throughout the festival.
Group work sessions will be held involving distributors from Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Argentina, India, Korea, and Thailand.
The Cannes Film Festival will also be an opportunity for the Franco-German Film Meetings Association (Association des Rendez-vous franco-allemands du cinéma) to get together and put the finishing touches to Unifrance's initiatives planned for the 2006 fall season, such as film festivals in Russia and Mexico.
Club Unifrance will be welcoming a number of French film crews during the Cannes Film Festival, providing them with a venue and facilities for their meetings with international media representatives. Crews from the following films will meeting at the Club: "Paris, je t’aime," "Bled Number One" by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, "La Raison du plus faible" ("The Right of the Weakest") by Lucas Belvaux, "Les Amitiés maléfiques" ("Poison Friends") by Emmanuel Bourdieu, "La Tourneuse de Pages" by Denis Dercourt, "Requiem pour Billy the Kid" ("Requiem for Billy the Kid") by Anne Feinsilber, "Flandres" ("Flanders") by Bruno Dumont, "Transylvania" by Tony Gatlif, "Meurtrières" by Patrick Grandperret, "Les Lumières du faubourg" ("Laitakaupungin Valotby") by Aki Kaurismaki, "Comment j’ai fêté la fin du monde" by Catalin Mitulescu, "Le Caïman" (Il Caimano") by Nanni Moretti, "Changement d’adresse" by Emmanuel Mouret, "Azur et Asmar" by Michel Ocelot, "Ca Brûle" ("On Fire") by Claire Simon, "Avida" by Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine, and "Bamako" by Abderrahmane Sissako (Contacts: press attachés for individual films).
For the red carpet ceremony on May 25, Unifrance will be gathering together the directors and lead cast members from seven of the French films most eagerly-awaited by international audiences this year: Isabelle Mergault for "Je vous trouve très beau" ("You Are So Beautiful") Danièle Thompson and Claude Brasseur for "Fauteuils d’orchestre," Gela Babluani for "13 Tzameti," Laurent Cantet for "Vers le Sud" ("Heading South"), Kim Chapiron and Olivier Barthelemy for "Sheitan," Patrick Chesnais for "Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé" ("Not Here to Be Loved") and Jérôme Cornuau for "Les Brigades du tigre" ("Tiger Brigades"). The following day, guest directors and actors will take part in interviews with journalists from countries in which their respective films are slated for upcoming release.
Short films will also be in the spotlight on May 25, with the presentation of the Gras Savoye Award by the director Laurent Cantet at 5.30 p.m. This prize, given to an up-and-coming director, includes a €3,000 cash award.
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