06/03/2014 - 24 features and a delegation of 15 filmmakers come together for the 19th edition of the event organised by Unifrance, which starts today

Tonight in New York’s Paris Theater, Emmanuelle Bercot’s On My Way [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will open the 19th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, in the presence of its lead actress, Catherine Deneuve. Taking place until 16 March, and organised by Unifrance and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the event will be offering a selection of 24 feature films and will be paying particular homage to female filmmakers and a very promising young generation of directors.

On the programme of screenings due to take place at the IFC Center (Manhattan), the BAM (Brooklyn) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are six titles that were discovered at Cannes: Suzanne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile] by Katell Quillévéré, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile], A Castle in Italy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
film profile] by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, François Ozon’s Young and Beautiful [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: François Ozon
film profile], Les Apaches [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Thierry De Peretti and Tip Top [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Serge Bozon
film profile] by Serge Bozon (read the interview).

Also on the menu are the Venice award winner Eastern Boys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Robin Campillo
film profile] by Robin Campillo (read the interview), the Berlinale selections If You Don’t, I Will [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sophie Fillières and Love Battles [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jacques Doillon, the Locarno-screened Tonnerre [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Brac
film profile] by Guilllaume Brac and Quai d’Orsay [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bertrand Tavernier (which won an award at San Sebastian and will be closing the event).

The line-up also includes feature films directed by bankable stars, such as Un beau dimanche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nicole Garcia, Jean-Paul Salomé’s Playing Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Love Is the Perfect Crime [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Under the Rainbow [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Agnès Jaoui and Michel Gondry’s L’Ecume des jours [+see also:
trailer
making of
interview: Michel Gondry
film profile] (read the interview). Promising French arthouse productions are also part of the programme, including La Bataille de Solférino [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Justine Triet, 2 automnes, 3 hivers by Sébastien Betbeder, and Axelle Ropert’s Tirez la langue, mademoiselle [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Also being showcased are the hit comedy La cage dorée [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ruben Alves, the socially committed La Marche [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile] by Belgian director Nabil Ben Yadir and two titles that will be released in French theatres on 12 March: the documentary School of Babel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julie Bertuccelli and His Wife [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Michel Spinosa (read the article).

Interestingly, 15 filmmakers will come to present their films to the New York audience, and six of the selected titles will also be broadcast to movie theatres in 40 American cities, either at the same time as the New York screenings or with a delay.

With 63 French films having been released in the US in 2013, taking €44.4 million worth of admissions in the process, the American market is an especially attractive target for Unifrance. The firm has signed partnership deals with cinema networks (both arthouse theatres like Specticast and multiplexes through the Galaxy and Arcangelo networks) in order to allow French films that are still without American distributors to be screened in movie theatres.

(Translated from French)