15/09/2003

There’s an particularly wide selection of works on the programme for the 18th International Festival of Franco-phone Films in Namur, which is taking place from September to October 3, 2003. There are more than 150 films taking part, sent in from around the French-speaking world, including Mister V by Emilie Deleuze, Niki et Flo by Lucian Pintilié, Père et Fils by Michel Boujenah, L'autre by Benoît Mariage, Vert Paradis by Emmanuel Bourdieu, Gaz Bar Blues by Louis Bélanger and Travail d'Arabe by Christian Philibert. The opening film of the Festival will be La petite Lili by Claude Miller and the first feature length work by the Belgium director Sam Garbaski, le Tango des Rashevski, will be shown as the closing film.

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The official jury for the fiction competition is led by Andrzej Zulawski and includes Franco Dragone (the filmmaker and producer) and Firmine Richard (8 Women [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). There are 10 titles competing for the Golden Bayards, which are worth a cash prize of €48,000 this year. The works in competition include Elle est des nôtres by Siegrid Alnoy, No Rest for the Brave [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie, Mille Mois by Faouzi Bensaidi, Le silence de la forêt by Bassek ba Kobhio & Didier Ouénangaré, Le soleil assassiné by Abdelkrim Bahloul, 20h17 rue Darling by Bernard Emond and Madame Brouette by Moussa Sene Absa.
There is also a competition to award the Bayard prize for documentaries, with the jury being led by the Belgium filmmaker, Thierry Michel. Among the 11 works competing there’s Nous sommes nombreuses by Moussa Touré, Nous / Autres by Giovanni Cioni, La raison du plus fort by Patric Jean and Roussil, and Le Curieux destin d'un anarchiste impénitent by Werner Volkmer. There will be a further competition for international and Belgium short films, and two retrospectives dedicated to Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernadette Lafont.

The Festival will also be organising a series of meetings for professionals about new technology, screenplay writing and music composition for films, which will all be run in parallel to the film screenings. In addition, following on from the meetings about the French-speaking film sector started last year by Daniel Toscan du Plantier, this year, on October 1, there’s a debate on the theme "The spread, promotion and distribution of Franco-phone films: the reality and the possibilities".
The honorary president of the festival, Gérard Corbiau (The Music Teacher, Farinelli) will be presenting his new film, St-Germain ou la négociacion and he will also be holding a cinema lesson on the theme of music for films, along with the composer Alexandre Desplat and the director, Solveig Anspach.
The list of guests appearing in Namur includes Frédéric Diefenthal, Clovis Cornillac, Ludmila Mikael, Hippolyte Girardot, Claude Miller, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Rasmané Ouedraogo, Benoît Mariage, Bouli Lanners, Bruno Putzulu, Michel Boujenah, Philippe Blasband, Abdelkrim Bahloul, René Manzor, Frédéric Mitterrand, Moussa Sene Absa, Jean-Marie Téno, Bernard Emond, Jean Cosmos, Pascal Elbé, Robert Lepage and Zeka Laplaine.

(Translated from French)