Cinema
The French Cultural Service in Chicago promotes French and francophone cinema in the following ways :
by supporting film festivals (French and francophone festivals, European festivals, international and theme-specific festivals with French programming).
by touring film series and retrospectives organized by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
by organizing panel discussions around film-related topics
by inviting French filmmakers to attend their screenings and discuss their work with the audience.
by sending American programmers to France to attend festivals and other film events.
by co-programming certain festivals and series.
by responding to programmers wishing to present classic or contemporary French films to which our Ministry owns the print and /or the rights (the Ministry owns hundreds of prints and thousands of documentaries available on DVD and /or film format).
by organizing educational screenings for students.
by serving as a liaison between French and American film professionals.
by providing advice and information to professionals and institutions.
by offering several programs to universities wishing to showcase French cinema on their campus (see below).
Programs are funded largely through the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CulturesFrance and French and American private partners through the foundation FACE (French American Cultural Exchange).
Please see below for information related to specific programs.
The Tournées Festival, a program of FACE, is designed to help bring contemporary French cinema to college or university campus. The Tournées Festival was conceived to encourage schools to begin their own self-sustaining French film festivals. Since its inception, the program has partnered with hundreds of universities and made it possible for more than 300,000 students to discover French-language films. The Tournées Festival distributes approximately $180,000 in grants annually.
Application deadlines : June 30, 2009 for those who wish to program films in the fall semester, and October 1, 2009 for those scheduling their films in the spring semester.
In collaboration with Le Meilleur du Cinéma Français company, the French Embassy is offering an Internet portal that enables k-12 schools, Universities and Cultural Institutions to access films online and to organize public screenings more easily accross the US. More than 60 feature-length films are available in the US, most of which figured among the most prominent French independent films in the last few years.
FONDS DU MINISTERE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES
The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs holds a collection of approximately 300 fiction films (old and new, features and shorts) and 3000 documentaries (exploring a variety of topics, from politics to contemporary dance). The Ministry has the US non-commercial distribution rights of a large number of these films. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy can make them available free of charge to universities and cultural institution.
