The 7th French Film Festival in Russia, co-organized by Unifrance and the French Embassy in Moscow, will be held from December 5 through 10, 2006, at Nijni-Novgorod and Novossibirsk, two major Russian cities currently enjoying an economic boom and a rise in movie attendance.
Two media conferences have been held in the lead-up to the festival, in Nijni-Novgorod on November 14, and in Moscow on November 16, in the presence of the French Ambassador, Stanislas Lefebvre de La Boulaye. The 35 or so journalists present at Nijni-Novgorod, as well as the 90 journalists present in Moscow, were presented with the list of films selected (6 titles, all chosen by Russian distributors, for whom this festival serves as a preview screening platform). They were also informed that films presented will be accompanied by their directors and a number of their lead actors.
The Moscow media conference was divided into two sections, the second of which was devoted to the release of "Paris, je t’aime," slated for November 30, and whose preview screening was held the same evening in the new Evropeïski 9-screen multiplex theater, with seating capacity for 1,450. The film’s producer, Claudie Ossard, made a special trip from Paris to attend the screening, and took part in interviews with a host of journalists, as well as inaugurating the new cinema complex. The film’s Russian distributor, Central Partnership, organized a simultaneous screening of the film in every theater for an audience of close to 1,500 guests. The major success of the various media conferences, together with the high public interest in “Paris, je t'aime,” raise hopes for a successful festival, which is, for the second year running, scheduled to take place in cities far from Moscow.
View file
