08/11/2013 - With 13 (co)productions selected and 74 professionals for the Business Street, French cinema shows its trust in the Roman Festival

As the Rome Film Festival, whose 8^th edition begins today, seems to be going through a tough time, only kept afloat by the address book of it’s artistic director, Marco Müller, French cinema remains a cornerstone of the event, Italy being an important market for French films.

Although no majority French production features in the official competition and only one coproduction was selected with I'm Not him [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoglu (coproduced and sold by Arizona – read the article), the out of competition programme will feature the international premieres of Playing Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Paul Salomé (article) and The Scapegoat [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nicolas Bary (to be released on November 14). In partnership with the autonomous section Alice nella città, the official selection will also present the international premiere of Belle & Sebastien by Nicolas Vanier (article – release scheduled for December 18 in France and January 24 in Italy) and the European premiere of the documentary La cour de Babel by Julie Bertuccelli.

In the competitive section CinemaXXI which explores new cinematographic languages, Atlas by famous photographer Antoine d'Agata was selected, as well as Orlando Ferito (Roland blessé) by Vincent Dieutre and the documentary Parce que j'étais peintre, l'art rescapé des camps nazis by Christophe Cognet.

On the menu of the Alice nella città section, the competition includes Turning Tide [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jean Cottin
film profile] by Christophe Offenstein (read the article and the interview of producer Jean Cottin – Italian release on November 21) and Juliette [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Godeau, whilst the animated feature My Mummy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by duo Marc Boréal - Thibaut Chatel will benefit from a special screening. Finally, it is worth mentioning two minority French productions: one with Germany for Run, Boy, Run [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Pepe Danquart (competing in Alice nella città) and the other with Spain for Witching & Bitching [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alex de la Iglesia
film profile] by Alex de la Iglesia (official selection – out of competition).

As for the film market, 74 French professionals will take part in the Business Street (November 13-17) including representatives from Pyramide, Rezo, Films Distribution, Gaumont, Le Pacte, Memento, Doc & Film, MK2, Urban Distribution International, Wild Bunch, Reel Suspect, Wide, Funny Ballons, Cité Films, Bac Films, Pretty Pictures, Sophie Dulac, Jour2Fête, Epicentre, Bodega and Haut et Court. It is also worth noting two projects managed by France for the Romanian coproduction platform New Cinema Network: Saint Nicholas by Loukianos Moshonos (production Paul Conquet for Parisian outfit Zamizdat with Greek company Heretic) and Voice of Egypt by Shirin Neshat (Silver Lion in Venice in 2009 with his first feature Women Without Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) via Ilann Girard for Arsam International.

(Translated from French)