Hungary welcomed the 2008 Budapest French Film Days from April 17 through 20, with venues drawing audiences at 86% of seating capacity.
Festival opener, Hunting and Gathering drew packed houses, and a screening of Paris on the Saturday evening attracted similar crowds.
Friday evening’s screenings of Caramel and Angel unfortunately suffered from a local public transport strike, the first in Budapest’s history. The screening of Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure on Sunday afternoon drew only a small crowd, no doubt due to the excellent weather conditions. Attendance at the screening of short films was high, almost filling the venue.
All up, in Budapest and the 8 provincial cities that hosted the event, 7,268 spectators turned out to see preview screenings of a selection of 7 feature films and 7 short films.
Budapest’s Corvin Cinema attracted 3,353 spectators, while the Pécs, Győr, Szeged, Kecskemét, Miskolc, Debrecen, Szolnok, and Eger cinemas drew 3,915 French film enthusiasts. Once again this year, the city of Szeged retained its title as French films’ most popular provincial city, with 1,064 admissions registered.
A media conference was held Friday morning, with Audrey Tautou and Pierre Grunstein in attendance. Around 150 journalists and photographers took part in the conference, the highest number to date at an interview with French artists at this festival.
Audrey Tautou’s star-power certainly added impact to the French artistic delegation’s visit to Hungary, with the event enjoying excellent media coverage and effectively heightening exposure for French cinema in this territory.
