FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact – Renée Amory Ketcham – [email protected]
203-253-7632
Contact- Sylvie Sergent- [email protected]
914-826-5324
Focus on French Cinema 2021 (FFC2021) will honor the CINEMA OF BELGIUM with a NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM from April 21- April 30 , 2021along with a curated selection of new releases and recent festival favorites.
Presented annually by the Alliance Française of Greenwich, FFC 2021 will celebrate the 16th edition following the highly successful 15th anniversary edition in 2019 that welcomed 7,000 cinéphiles to Greenwich, Stamford and Manhattan.
The new virtual cinema slate featuring 10 movies over 10 days is in response to the coronavirus crisis and will enable moviegoers to enjoy the best of French-language films from the safety and comfort of their homes. The 10 films/ 10days (dix films/dix jours) program will allow viewers, for the first time in FFC history, to screen one film per day followed by Zoom discussions of many of the films with Programming Director Joe Meyers and invited guests.
Meyers noted that "when it became clear that the pandemic would not be under control by April last spring, we very reluctantly decided to cancel the 2020 Focus on French Cinema. Other film organizations had the time to shift to virtual festivals later in the year but we knew we couldn't uphold our high standards by producing our festival on a home viewing platform in less than two months. Frankly, when we announced the year-long postponement of the festival I assumed we would be able to get back to the traditional in-person event by April 2021. We began screening potential selections several months ago with that idea in mind. But when it became clear toward the end of 2020 that movie theaters would not be back to full strength until the summer or fall at the earliest, we decided to come up with a virtual FFC for April 2021."
FFC Chair Renée Ketcham and Co- Founder of FFC notes that "as enthusiastically as we roll out our virtual red carpet, none of this will ever approach the experience of an in- person festival." The FFC team continues to acknowledge the importance of the big screen and the "audience experience" with the incredible "live" interviews ,discussions, and Q & As with industry professionals in the theater following every screening since FFC 2005. She notes that the movies “give us art as well as a place to go" - a sense of community and connection and even a sort of escape from daily life. She hopes that after this year’s virtual festival we will return to our in-person screenings and discussions at FFC 2022.
Director of Programming Joe Meyers and the Selection Committee have already found several great films for the late April slate and will continue to screen contenders until mid-March.
‘We look forward to adding interviews and discussions via Zoom and maintaining the momentum that Focus on French Cinema has achieved over two decades in showcasing the best new francophone movies,” Meyers said.
