Unifrance welcomes the publication of the Attali Report entitled "Francophone and Francophile communities, driving forces of sustainable growth," which was presented to the French president on August 27, 2014.
Five of the 53 proposals laid out in the report concern the movie industry in the French-speaking community around the world, and echo the spirit of the report on French-speaking African nations released by Unifrance on June 30 this year (this document can be downloaded in PDF format below).
- The Attali Report begins by recommending the promotion of film education and the teaching of the French language through the presentation of films: this is one of the missions that UniFrance Films intends to further develop, notably through its program of Cinema Lessons with French movie artists held in foreign universities, as well as through French film festivals organized by UniFrance Films each year in around a dozen countries and the development of its own Online Film Festival showcasing French and French-language films.
- The growing success of this VOD platform, Myfrenchfilmfestival.com, which was created four years ago (and registered 4 million viewings in one month during the festival's first edition), demonstrates that an aggressive strategy to develop French-language VOD services, as is called for in the Attali Report, can be highly successful.
- Furthermore, UniFrance Films, which contributes to the subtitling of a great many French films throughout the year, is in agreement with the Attali Report in considering that this support for the industry could be extended to include other languages in order to increase the international exposure of our films.
- Finally, as regards the proposal concerning the construction of movie theaters in "Francophilophone countries" (French-speaking Francophile communities), this preoccupation converges with the concern expressed in the UniFrance Films report on French-speaking Africa. This project is also currently underway, with the implementation since the beginning of 2014 of the digital conversion of movie theaters belonging to French Institutes around the world organized by the CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in exchange for the screening of French-language films. However, in order to further increase the exposure of these productions, UniFrance Films, as is recommended by the Attali Report, is currently collaborating with the CNC to explore possible financial mechanisms to encourage private operators to construct theaters, notably in Africa, where there is a severe shortage of movie screens.
