21/11/2006

The 4th French-German Rendez-vous (November 9-11) – an initiative organised by the German-French Film Academy (founded in 2000 by Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder – can congratulate itself on having attracted a record number of participants. Over 370 French and German professionals (see news) visited the event, which this year took place in Munich under the honorary presidency of Jan Schütte and Jean-Jacques Beineix.

The Rendez-vous provided an opportunity to firm up relations between France’s CNC and its German counterpart, the FFA (partners of the meetings along with Unifrance, German Films, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, the City of Munich, ARRI, Bavaria and several regional funding bodies from the two countries), as well as to discuss the positive results of the co-production agreements and the French/German mini-treaty.

Representatives of the two institutions also discussed the new common programme of production support, which will be up and running as of January 1, 2007 and provide annual funding of €60m.

The pitching sessions, which are taking place this year for the second time and allow 20 producers to present their project to potential co-producers, were very well received, as was a new Rendez-vous initiative that consisted of presenting 16 young actors from each country to the public and participants.

With collaboration between institutions, acquaintances between producers and increased exchanges of good practice, French/German co-productions have a bright future ahead of them.

(Translated from French)