“ Discover the best of French and French-speaking cinema. » The Promise is available in 26 films, in all formats, genres and aesthetics, broadcast on all continents and even free of charge in Africa and some other parts of the world. From January 19 to February 19, the 14th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival, the first global online festival entirely dedicated to French-speaking cinema. Interview with Daniela Elstner, general director of Unifrance, the institution responsible for exporting French cinema to the world and Myfrenchfilmfestival.
RFI : What will be the biggest novelty of this 2024 edition of Myfrenchfilmfestival ?
The biggest news this year is that we have even more platforms all over the world. We’re going to 80 platforms! So we are very happy with it. We work with platforms that are all over the world and also with platforms that are only in one country.
In Africa, your festival works very well in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia… In which country, on which continent, is the demand for the festival’s French-speaking films usually the most active? ?
We have films that are in demand all over the world, but particularly in Latin America. Last year, Mexico was the number one country, followed by Brazil and Argentina. But we also have very good results across the entire African continent. We also have a good presence in Europe. This is really the strength of the festival that it goes everywhere and in places where we are not normally so represented with French cinema.
The year 2023 was a very good year for cinemas in France, with 180 million admissions, an increase of 18.9 % compared to 2022. Is this also the case online ? Do you have the impression that the MyFrenchFilmFestival is currently on an upward slope ?
Quite. I believe we are gaining ground on platforms. Moreover, Unifrance carried out a study on the presence of French cinema and audiovisual, beyond our Myfrenchfilmfestival. On the platforms, we often come in third or fourth position compared to all world cinema, including American. We are very happy about it. And for Myfrenchfilmfestival, last year we had over 14 million movie views, that’s a lot. We’ll see if we can do better this year.
Nine films are competing this year in the feature film competition, including my only desire, by Lucie Borleteau. This 43-year-old French filmmaker has directed a story that takes place in the striptease scene, with some explicit scenes. Where are the limits for this kind of films which are nevertheless intended for global distribution, that is to say also offered, for example, in the Middle East and Africa? Where are the moral, ethical, political, religious limits of Myfrenchfilmfestival ?
Lucie Borleteau rightly thematizes this ethical and moral question in my only desire. That’s the whole question of the film. We, obviously, do not set limits. We remain within what is approved by France. There is no transgression. And we’ve had very few censorship issues in countries. You should know, not all films are free in all countries either. And it’s a very clever puzzle to know which film can be shown where. On our platform, we project everything and we have never had a problem. We asked ourselves the question about Lucie’s film obviously, but as this is precisely the theme of the film, we are very happy to be able to present it and we will see in the reactions if there are people who will be shocked or not.
All 26 films will be offered with subtitles in eleven languages, including Russian and Ukrainian. Since the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, have more or fewer films been viewed with subtitles in Russian or Ukrainian?
Indeed, since the start of the war, we have added Ukrainian subtitling. We work with platforms in Ukraine, which is not necessarily very easy. Before, we didn’t have subtitles in Ukrainian, so today, obviously, the country is watching more than before. We are also working more closely with the platforms and I believe there is strong demand. You should know that we do not work with platforms in Russia directly. This goes through our platform which offers and through global platforms. But we do not have a partnership with a dedicated platform in Russia. It’s part of our ethics at Unifrance. Obviously, it went down a little.
The international jury is made up of five members : three women and two men, including three Europeans, a South American and an African, the Moroccan Faouzi Bensaïdi. What are the criteria for selecting the members of the international jury ?
Ideally, we always try to have people representing all continents. It’s not so easy, because you have to find availability. We choose directors, actors and actresses, people who have made films, who have traveled. We try to be balanced, to have a few different angles so that, at the time of deliberation, there are voices from everywhere who express themselves and give this prize which is close to our hearts and which is also endowed.
There will be five prizes in total, including, for the first time, the Prize for content creators, influencers. In your opinion, what is the influence of these influencers in the field of cinema today? ?
This prize is something new for us and also an experiment. We work very closely with international distributors who tell us who is the influencer today when it comes to going to see a film, taking audiences to theaters, watching series, etc. Obviously, the international press and the national press in the countries remain very important for us, but we also see some countries where influencers take this role of prescriber and we also see it a little in France. We also launched a project on a European online festival (MyMetaStories, Editor’s note) with whom we created a cinema room in a video game. We worked quite a bit with influencers, which gave us the idea of this jury of content creators.
► 14th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestivalthe first global online festival entirely dedicated to French-speaking cinema, from January 19 to February 19, 2024