French productions will have a strong presence at two Asian film festivals early October, offering the region an invitation to discover French cinema.
The 13th Pusan International Film Festival, held from October 2 through 10 this year, will showcase some twenty French productions including Entre les murs (The Class), La Frontière de l'aube, Française, Les Bureaux de Dieu (God’s Offices), and JCVD (also released as Codename: JCVD and JCVD - The Movie). A dozen French artists will be in Pusan to accompany their films: Arnaud Desplechin for Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale), Claire Denis for 35 Rhums, Philippe Grandrieux for Un lac, Abbas Fahdel for L’Aube du monde (Dawn of the World), and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire for Johnny Mad Dog.
Also at this festival, which is the largest event of its kind in Asia, a film market (the Asia Film Market) will be held for the third year running. Some ten French sales agents will be present at the Unifrance stand housed under the EFP banner (European Film Promotion) to meet with Asian distributors.
From October 3 through 13, the Alliance Française in Singapore will be screening around twenty French films during their 24th French Film Festival. In addition to a selection of several films by Alain Resnais, such as Hiroshima Mon Amour (Hiroshima, My Love), Muriel, On connaît la chanson (Same Old Song), spectators will have the chance to discover the latest offerings by Claire Simon (Ca brûle), Pierre Jolivet (Je crois que je l'aime, aka Could This Be Love?), and Christophe Honoré (Les Chansons d'amour, aka Love Songs). Also presented are Le Dernier des fous (released as Demented and The Last of the Crazy People) by Laurent Achard, La France by Serge Bozon, and Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks) by Dany Boon, one of whose lead cast members, Philippe Duquesne, will be in attendance to promote the film.
To coincide with these two festivals, Unifrance is hosting a press junket in Paris from October 12 through 17. The following media representatives are invited to this event: 3 journalists from Hong Kong (from Cable TV, Hong Kong Economic Times, Milk), 6 Taiwanese journalists (The China Times, CTITV, United Daily News, World Screen Magazine, Look magazine, sina.com), and 2 Chinese journalists (CCTV6, Kan Diaying). They will meet with actors and directors from some twenty French films slated for release in these three territories in upcoming months.
Recent successful French releases in Asia include Taken by Pierre Morel, which has raked in 11 million euros at the box office, and Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) by Julian Schnabel.
