Created in 1998 by Cinémania (Christophe Barratier and Nouredine Essadi), the French Film Festival in Cuba allows Cuban audiences to discover fifteen or so recent features each year.
For twelve years, more than 150 French artists have traveled to Havana. This year, ten artists will make up the delegation, from young directors such as Rémi Bezançon and Philippe Haïm, to star actors such as Gérard Jugnot, who will meet with students of the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV) during a masterclass on June 21.
20,000 spectators attended the festival's first edition; attendances are now close to 140,000 spectators per festival, which makes it the French Film Festival with the highest audience figures in the world.
For the first time, Unifrance will organize a film market, which will be held over three days at the Occidental Miramar and will allow French film exporters to encounter distributors from eight Latin American countries. This initiative will restore a real business dynamic to this renowned cultural enterprise and recreate a market dedicated to Latin American buyers, following the example forged by the French Film Festival in Acapulco ten years ago.
The screenings will take place June 18 through 23 in seven of the most important cinemas in Havana, before the prints travel on to the provinces.
Apart from the Ambassade de France and the Alliance Française in Cuba, the event is supported by the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC, the Cuban film organization), the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), and private sponsors.
