The 10th French Film Panorama in China will be presented for the first time as a section of the Beijing International Film Festival.
Led by the event's patron, Chinese director Chuan Lu (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, City of Life and Death), eight feature films and ten short films from the Panorama selection will travel from Beijing to Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Nankin, and Xian.
The following feature films have been selected for presentation: A Monkey on My Shoulder by Marion Laine, Love by Michael Haneke, Camille Rewinds by Noémie Lvovsky, Ernest & Celestine by Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, and Stéphane Aubier, What's in a Name by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, Superstar by Xavier Giannoli, Thérèse Desqueyroux by Claude Miller, and Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini.
Two French films and one co-production will feature in the festival competition (What the Day Owes the night by Alexandre Arcady, Maddened by his Absence by Sandrine Bonnaire, and Inch'allah by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette), with some ten French films and co-productions showcased in other festival sections. As a sidebar to the festival, a Co-Production Film Market will be held from April 21-23, in the presence of Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, and Luc Besson.
Over the years, the French Film Panorama in China has stamped itself as a key occasion to present new films and to raise awareness of French cinema in the media and with local audiences. To support this, the annual collaboration between the Students' Festival in Beijing, held at the Beijing Teacher Training College, and KingBonn, the one and only short film festival which is held in Shenzhen each year in May, will give young and student audiences a chance to discover a selection of films from the Panorama.
An delegation of French actors and directors, composed of Catherine Corsini, Julia Faure, Marion Laine, Anne Parillaud, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Alexandre Arcady, Dominique Besnehard, and Samir Guesmi will be in Beijing to present and promote their films. Delegation members will meet with the Chinese media and local movie industry professionals.
While 2012 was, generally speaking, a good year for French cinema in China, with ten films released, the situation for film distribution remains complicated. The Chinese theatrical market remains difficult to access due to the quota system applied to film imports and the priority given by theaters to large-scale productions from the American studios. The Panorama thus offers an opportunity to offer visibility on the wide screen to a range of French productions that reflect the diversity and creativity of current French filmmaking.
A second Panorama event will take place in June 2013 in collaboration with the Shanghai International Film Festival in order to present new French films, held in the presence of a different delegation of French artists.
