French Films
French films are a very effective vehicle for promoting French language and culture. Many AFs present French films in conjunction with cinema classes or as part of a film program
Resources
Two excellent sites for finding information on French films are:
www.unifrance.org : Database for French cinema
This is the official site for the promotion of French cinema. It can be searched by film title, actors, characters, directors, festivals, etc.
www.lescesarducinema.com :Les César du Cinéma
This is the official site for the annual French film awards.
Video libraries
Many Alliance Française chapters have video libraries where members can check out French videos or DVDs for home viewing.
Film classes and Ciné-Clubs
Alliance Française chapters are encouraged to integrate
films into their course offerings, preceding each showing with a brief introduction and following the showing with a discussion. When films are shown as part of an educational program, no performance fees are required. See, for example, the Ciné-Club chez Claude developed by the AF de Santa Cruz (CA).
Film festivals
When French films are shown as part of a film festival that is open to the public, copyright laws require the payment performance fees which may range from $200 to $500 per film. Given these costs, a local Alliance will often join up with another partner or sponsor.
- a local movie theater
Often a local movie theater is happy to collaborate with an Alliance Française to offer a small French film festival, or perhaps an individual screening. For the Alliance Française evening, the theater may modify its schedule to allow for a short introduction to the film or a brief discussion afterwards- a local university
An Alliance Française chapter may wish to link up with a local university and offer a Tournées film festival. The Tournées festivals are generously subsidized by the French American Cultural Exchange or FACE (formerly known as FACSEA) which runs this annual grant program to support the screening of contemporary French cinema on American college campuses.
- a local museum
Museums, both small and large, often collaborate with a local Alliance Française either to present a French film festival, or to screen one or two French films that are thematically connected to an ongoing exhibit.