His Excellency Marc Abensour

AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO SINGAPORE 

The French Film Festival turns 35 years this year. We will be celebrating this milestone with being innovative as the French Film Festival is now the main cinema programme of Voilah! France Singapore Festival. We hope that combining the two French cultural flagships in Singapore will make them more attractive and impactful towards the local audience.

Heartened by its success in the previous years, the French Film Festival has expanded its programme to present an exciting two-week exploration into the world of contemporary French cinema through thirty movies, a new record for the number of movies.

Highlights in the programme include:

• Diversification of film elements such as theme, gender, sensitivity and tonality,
• Films that promote values relating to liberty, openness and solidarity,
• International co-productions that are shot in several countries and languages, with a culturally-diverse cast,
• Film icons that challenged the status-quo with their portrayal of strong and independent female characters,
• A sexy section that captivated the audience throughout cinema history, ranging from the early sixties to the last Cannes Film Festival.

In response to the interests and demands of our passionate audience base, we have chosen to screen recently released movies. Some of them were previously unavailable in Asia, while others have yet to be released in France. These premieres are only made possible thanks to our strong partnership with Shaw Theatres Lido and I warmly thank Mark and Christopher Shaw for their passion for French cinema.

It is also a great pleasure to welcome the work of other partners that support French cinema in Singapore: the long-standing partners – the Alliance Francaise de Singapour and The Projector – and the new ones – eight Community Clubs of People’s Association will showcase animated films catered to youths and the MINDS Film Festival will launch an exclusive preview of a French documentary from its 4th edition line-up.

I am also very grateful to our esteemed sponsors, without whom the 2019 edition of the French Film Festival would not be possible, in particular Crédit Industriel et Commercial / Banque Transatlantique and Hermès.

I wish to see you many in the cinemas!