Report on the French Film Week in Berlin

uniFrance Films worked closely with the French Embassy in Berlin to organize the event. Ten French films with upcoming theatrical releases, were presented at premiere screenings: Untouchable, Declaration of War, Chicken with Plums, The Artist, War of the Buttons, Sarah's Key, The Snows of Kilimandjaro, Nobody Else But You, The Fairy, and And If We All Lived Together. Two films yet to be picked up by German distributors will also be presented: A Cat in Paris and The Rabbi's Cat.
For the first time, the opening night ceremony took place at the Kino International in Karl Marx Allee in the former East Berlin. From 1963 on, this famous movie house hosted premiere screenings of DEFA films in East Berlin. Today, premieres continue to be presented here. The Kino International is also one of the Berlinale's official theaters.

The opening night film, Untouchable by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano was a huge success. It was hosted by Nathalie Licard, a French journalist and personality with a popular following in Germany, known for her appearances on Harald Schmidt's talkshow on Sat1. The evening was followed by a concert by Lyre Le Temps, the revelation of the Printemps de Bourges Music Festival 2009, and the DJ Luc Le Truc, in collaboration with the French Music Export Office. Within the framework of this collaboration, a concert by Irène Jacob also took place at the French Institute. It was attended by more than one hundred people.

The other premieres and screenings took place in three other Berlin theaters, the Cinéma Paris, Filmtheater am Friedrichshain and the Passage Neukölln run by the YORCK Kino group and French Film Week partner. Spread out over the city, they allowed the Film Week to reach a wide audience. The strong media coverage of this uniFrance Films event meant a 40% increase in ticket sales compared to 2010. Almost 6,000 spectators turned out for screenings this year.

A delegation of 11 artists supported by Unifrance Films went to Germany to present their films: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano and François Cluzet (Untouchable), Marjane Satrapi (Chicken with Plums), Christophe Barratier (War of the Buttons), Stéphane Robelin, Guy Bedos, Géraldine Chaplin and Christophe Bruncher (And If We Lived Together), Alain Gagno l (A Cat in Pairs), and Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel (The Fairy).

Matinée screenings of War of the Buttons, A Cat in Paris, and The Rabbi's Cat took place with Berlin school children students within the framework of film educational workshops supported by uniFrance Films to encourage film awareness among younger audiences.

The French Film Week in Berlin's rich and varied program created hugely positive and encouraging echoes among all the Week's partners, the press and the Berlin public.