Cannes Film Festival 2024: Unifrance to promote French cinema's projects

Unifrance will be present at the Cannes Film Festival from May 14 through 25 to help promote the works and artists of French cinema. The organization will take up residence in its two usual venues: the Unifrance Terrace, just off the Croisette, which will welcome the teams of French films presented at the festival, the international press, and numerous events and the Unifrance stand, located within the Marché du Film, which will host several French international sales companies and will be available to its members. It will also host meetings between Unifrance teams and their contacts during the festival.

The Unifrance Terrace is a space designed to welcome the crews of French productions selected in Cannes for their interviews with the international press. The venue will also host numerous private events. Unifrance stand located in the Marché du Film will host meetings for Unifrance member producers and exporters, and will provide an umbrella for two export companies: MPM Premium and Octopolis. This space will also be the venue where Unifrance teams will meet with their contacts: directors and selectors of foreign festivals, international distributors, representatives of VOD platforms, exporters, market managers, audiovisual attachés, cultural advisors, partners, and export professionals.

FRENCH FILMS AT THE FESTIVAL
The 2024 edition of the Cannes International Film Festival offers another magnificent portrait of contemporary French cinema, with six French films vying for the Palme d'Or. The festival will open with a tribute to cinema with Quentin Dupieux's latest film, "The Second Act", set against the backdrop of a film shoot, featuring a quartet of characters, and whose cast Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard, and Louis Garrel will walk the red carpet to launch proceedings.

This year, six films will represent French cinema in Competition, including a first feature "Wild Diamond" by Agathe Riedinger, about the world of influencers, and an animated film "The Most Precious of Cargoes" by Michel Hazanavicius. New films by Christophe Honoré "Marcello Mio", Jacques Audiard "Emilia Perez", Gilles Lellouche "L'Amour ouf", and Payal Kapadia "All We Imagine as Light" round out the majority-French films.

Karim Aïnouz, David Cronenberg, Miguel Gomes, Paolo Sorrentino, and Kirill Serebrennikov will also present their films, all French-minority productions.

Three French documentaries, directed by Raoul Peck, Claire Simon, and Yolande Zauberman, will be presented in Special Screenings, accompanied, in this same section, by films by Arnaud Desplechin and Daniel Auteuil. And, as in recent editions, the Cannes Première sidebar will showcase a dozen eagerly-awaited French films, including Leos Carax's medium-length feature and new films by Gaël Morel, Alain Guiraudie, and the Larrieu brothers.

Un certain regard will feature new films by Boris Lojkine and three filmmakers' debut productions: Louise Courvoisier "Vingt Dieux", Céline Sallette "Niki", and Julien Colonna "The Kingdom". Noémie Merlant will present her second feature, "The Balconettes", in a Midnight Screening.