To fulfill its mission to promote French cinema abroad, Unifrance prioritises work with distributors, essential to the diffusion of French cinema around the world.
The British market is a tough one for all foreign language films. This makes the distributors’ task especially delicate. Some have been faithful to French cinema for decades, others have taken on the challenge of theatrical distribution more recently. They are all very dynamic and share the aim to increase local audiences for French films.“A Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” is a new version of our annual British showcase, enriched and extended, inspired both by the distributors concerned and French films
soon due for release in the UK .
This ambitious event held at one of London’s most prestigious cinemas, the Curzon Mayfair, is a major showcase for French cinema over a period of four days. The selection illustrates the quality and variety of French cinema today. Screenings will be attended by directors and actors who will meet both the public and the media. Enhancing the positive evolution of the
market for French cinema in Britain that has been visible over the past two years.
Finally, to demonstrate the current vitality of French cinema, we are bringing a delegation of young French actors to London. This initiative of the Artistic Commission of Unifrance aims to make unknown faces more familiar abroad and will enable these young French actors to meet both the public and film-industry members alongside their British counterparts.
Make a date for the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema on 29 March-1 April. We hope that the reception given to our films here will be worthy of the love our artists have for your country.

MARGARET MENEGOZ President of Unifrance

In France, as in Britain, people love to go to the cinema. The festival “A Rendez-Vous with French Cinema”, organised together with Unifrance, is a perfect opportunity for Francophiles in Britain and French people living in London to meet each other. Over four days, a selection of new French films, each scheduled for release in the UK in 2007, will be screened. Cinema is not only an art. It is also a very good way to take an in-depth look at a country. A film can be entertaining, challenging and moving at the same time. Watching a film is therefore a perfect way to see beyond the stereotypes and discover that the challenges France and Britain face are not so different. Indeed, our two countries’ approaches often have more in common and are more complementary than people think.

This is an exiting time for French culture. Our museums, visual arts and film industry are more dynamic and creative than ever before. In all, twenty French films are due to be released this year in cinemas across the UK, in addition to the programme of previews, themed seasons and retrospectives held at the Institut Français throughout the year.

I wish “A Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” every success!

GERARD ERRERA Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom