(Via CNW) Telefilm Canada and UniFrance films have decided they’re natural partners and announced (at TIFF) that they’re launching “a partnership focused on the distribution and promotion of independent films from their respective countries.” (UniFrance films, an agency of the government of France, is responsible for promoting French cinema throughout the world.)
Their first joint target: The U.S. market. Though it’s still in the planning stages (the films have not been launched in the States or still lack distributors there), the two agencies have announced that “one French movie will be included in Telefilm’s recently announced Canada Cool annual film tour, and one Canadian French-language movie will take part in the Young French Cinema tour, a program organized by UniFrance films and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.” It’s all about both growing the audience for independent films and also showcasing French and Canadian culture.
More on those tours: Canada Cool, curated by Laurence Kardish with marketing support from Telefilm, offers 12 Canadian comedies to the U.S. art-house circuit on a pick-and-choose model. Young French Cinema also reaches out to art-house cinemas — also film societies, the Alliance Française network and American universities — to offer U.S. audiences a selection of films by young French filmmakers.
