Unifrance has announced a new online French film festival. Geoffrey Macnab reports
Régine Hatchondo, director general of Unifrance, has revealed details of the French promotional film agency's plans to set up a new “online French film festival.” The first edition is likely to take place in December of this year and feature a short film competition and a competition for features. Various awards will be on offer, including an audience award and a foreign press award. The films will be screened with English and Spanish subtitles.
“We will have a majority of films directed by young talents, first or second-time directors, because generally they have difficulty in finding foreign markets,” Hatchondo says of the online festival’s emphasis on tyro auteurs. Audiences from all around the world will be able to watch the films for a likely charge of €2 for streaming each title.
Hatchondo was speaking in Rotterdam this weekend, where she was accompanying a sizeable French contingent to the Festival, led by directors such as François Ozon, Luc Moullet and Eugène Green.
Unifrance is also planning initiatives to boost the visibility of French cinema in various new territories. Hatchondo revealed that, in 2010/2011, Unifrance will be organising “French film festival” events in Vietnam, Kazakhstan and various countries of the Mahgreb (including Tunisia and Algeria), and possibly Poland. Unifrance will take filmmakers, actors and industry figures to these events.
Unifrance has an annual budget of around €9 million. “For the moment, the budget is more or less the same as last year, but we know we have to try to find more private partners,” says Hatchondo. However, she acknowledged that Unifrance may need to make savings in the face of tough economic times.
Hatchondo, erstwhile cultural adviser to Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and former general manager of the Cannes Quinzaine, took up her new position at Unifrance last year. Asked about her observations of Rotterdam, Hatchondo commented that she admired the auteur-driven approach of the festival. Rotterdam doesn’t place great emphasis on stars or red carpet events. That, Hatchondo suggests, is a “good policy.”
“It’s very important to show young talents, young directors and real auteur films,” she states. “I think that Rotterdam is completely right in its policy in the type of films it wants to show and defend.”