An online film festival giving exposure to French cinema and French-language movies will kick off on Jan. 13, featuring 29 films that audiences in Taiwan can stream on several video on demand (VOD) platforms.
At a virtual press conference held Thursday night, Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance, announced a selection of 12 feature movies and 17 short films at the 13th edition of the online event, MyFrenchFilmFestival (MyFFF), from Jan. 13 to Feb. 13.
These include French director Samuel Theis’s coming-of-age movie, “Softie,” which was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2022 Taipei Film Festival’s international new talent competition.
In addition, more than half of the selected movies were made by women filmmakers, including the short, “Cataracte,” directed by Faustine Crespy and Laetitia de Montalembert.
Speaking of the film festival, Elstner told the press conference that the online event provides “an opportunity [for] films to find a larger audience and often the younger one.”
It also provides a chance for audiences worldwide to see French movies or short films that have perhaps never been commercially released in their home countries, according to Elstner.
She said MyFFF has selected more than 300 movies and shorts since its launch in 2011 by Unifrance, a Paris-based organization dedicated to promoting French cinema worldwide.
In 2022, the festival was available in more than 200 countries and regions, with the viewership on its 71 partnered VOD platform reaching 11 million, she added.
This year, all of the 29 selected films will be streamed with English and Chinese subtitles, among others, and accessible on seven VOD services in Taiwan by their subscribers, including MUBI, Apple TV, Catchplay and HamiVideo, according to the organizer.
Taiwanese audiences can also go to MyFFF’s website, where shorts are free of charge and feature movies are available at a fixed rate, the organizer said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel