26/09/2023 - Between 6 and 29 October, the online festival will shine a light on young European cinema, showcased on the traditional platforms but also within the metaverse

Unifrance, the international agency promoting French film and audiovisual works, definitely has a taste for and a strategic sense of experimentation and innovation. After inventing the online gathering MyFrenchFilmFestival in 2011 (which unspools every year in January) long before such initiatives became common practice in the modern, digital world, the agency is now turning to the metaverse armed with MyMetaStories in an ongoing attempt to win over young, internet-user audiences located all around the world.

Introduced today by Unifrance’s chairman Gilles Pélisson and its CEO Daniela Elstner, this initiative backed by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme is a festival of European films (7 feature films and 13 shorts) set to unfold between 6 and 29 October this year, and offering a uniquely dual digital experience.

Indeed, not only will film lovers be able to access works on traditional digital platforms (namely the festival’s MyMetaStories.eu platform, with subtitles available in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, as well as on twenty or so global and local partner VoD platforms), they’ll also get to see them in the metaverse from 13-16 October via the Minecraft video game (in a dedicated universe created especially for the occasion and accessible in English, French and Spanish), which boasts the biggest gaming community in the world and which will act as a virtual cinema, for the very first time, whilst also offering up mini-games based on the films in the selection and organising meetings between young film lovers and gamers based in all corners of the globe.

The feature films on the agenda include Hard Shell, Soft Shell [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by French director Emma Benestan, The Gravity [+see also:
film review
film profile] by her compatriot Cédric Ido (discovered in Toronto’s Platform section), Libertad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile] by Spain’s Clara Roquet (unveiled in Cannes’ Critics’ Week), Pink Moon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Floor van der Meulen
film profile] by Dutch director Floor van der Meulen (triumphant in Tribeca), Mother Schmuckers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Harpo and Lenny Guit
film profile] by Belgium’s Lenny and Harpo Guit (which premiered in Sundance) and two movies presented in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up: Luxembourg, Luxembourg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antonio Lukich
film profile] by Ukrainian filmmaker Antonio Lukich and The Happiest Man in the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teona Strugar Mitevska
film profile] by Macedonia’s Teona Strugar Mitevska.

The short films in the showcase will be free to view all over the world while the feature films in the selection will cost €1.99 each or €7.99 for the whole package. The latter will, however, be free to view in Latin America, Africa and in the Near and Middle East.

(Translated from French)