From February 28 through March 11, New York city will be under the spell of French cinema during the 12th Rendezvous with French Cinema Today, a festival of French films hosted by Unifrance.
A prestigious line-up
16 French films will be presented in American premieres at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, and the IFC Center. Among these titles are La Môme (La Vie en Rose) by Olivier Dahan, which will open the festival in the Alice Tully Hall’s main theater (with seating for 1,000) in the presence of the director and lead actress, Marion Cotillard.
The selection of films also includes Ambitious by Catherine Corsini, One to Another by Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr, Inside Paris by Christophe Honoré, The Valet by Francis Veber, Blame It on Fidel by Julie Gavras, Flanders by Bruno Dumont, The Man of My Life by Zabou Breitman, The Untouchable by Benoit Jacquot, Il sera une fois (Once Upon a Tomorrow) by Sandrine Veysset, Je vais bien ne t’en fais pas by Philippe Lioret, Murderers by Patrick Grandperret, Tell No One by Guillaume Canet, I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single by Eric Lartigau, I Did It My Way by Xavier Giannoli, and The Page Turner by Denis Dercourt.
While a number of these titles have already found a distributor in North America, the festival also serves as a platform for films in search of a buyer by boosting their visibility among industry professionals. For this reason, the French delegation includes several producers and sales agents alongside actors and directors from the films showcased at the event. Delegation members will attend the screenings of their films and answer questions from the media and the public.
A market to be consolidated
After a record year in 2005, box office results for French films in the United States stabilized at 75 million euros in 2006 (for 14 million admissions), representing one quarter of all box office takings for French films outside France in 2006. The top five French titles (majority and minority French productions) were Silent Hill, The Queen,The Science of Dreams,Hidden, and Merry Christmas.
The Rendezvous with French Cinema Today is organized by Unifrance and Lincoln Center, with support from the Grand Marnier Foundation, the Société Générale Private Banking Group, and the Florence Gould Foundation. Air France, LVT, the Bureau d’Exportation de la Musique Française (French Music Export Office), Agnès B, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States are also partners of the event.
www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/rendezvous07.html
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