With 188.82 million cinemagoers in France alone in 2008, French cinema is fit and well at home. It is also having a great deal of success with its exports, attracting an ever-growing audience throughout the world thanks to the work of Unifrance, the body responsible for promoting French cinema abroad.

Set up by the French public authorities in 1949, Unifrance promotes France’s cinema abroad. Supported by nearly 600 members, this association, which notably includes French producers and film-makers, supports the promotion of cinematographic works, for instance by helping actors to make their presence felt all over the world. It also organises cultural events with a view to making French cinema better known abroad. Usually open to the public, the aim of these events is to popularise French films as well as the artistic teams that accompany them. In 2003, this same objective led the association to set up a programme of meetings between famous French film-makers and students of international film schools. Entitled On Set with French Cinema, this initiative allowed Claude Lelouch, for instance, to spend a few days with the students of the Moscow National Film School and Jean-Pierre Jeunet to give master classes to the students of the University of California in Los Angeles.

Funded by the Centre National de la Cinématographie, Unifrance today receives assistance from the French Secretariat for External Trade. This new partnership not only brings it additional funding, but also helps with the promotional trips taken by actors and audiovisual companies.

At present, the association is active in over 55 countries and as a result benefits from unequalled expertise. Every year in Paris, during its traditional Rendezvous held in January, the managers of Unifrance report on the performance of French films abroad. On this occasion lots of foreign distributors and journalists are invited to meet French film professionals who present their latest productions.

In 2008, nearly 80 million foreign filmgoers watched French films. This is a record; never have French productions known such a success abroad. The five films that clocked up the largest number of ticket sales were mainly big-budget productions, but other feature-length films of more limited appeal have also contributed to the strong performance of France’s film industry outside the country. Babylon A.D. by Mathieu Kassovitz leads the pack at the box office with sales of 10.13 million tickets, followed by Astérix aux jeux Olympiques [Asterix at the Olympic Games] by Thomas Langman and Frédéric Forestier with ticket sales of 9.17 million, and Taken by Pierre Morel with 8.85 million tickets. Caramel, a Franco-Lebanese film by Nadine Labaki, which was released in 21 countries, came 9th and attracted an audience of 1.2 million. Other feature films, at first sight intended for a national audience, have also won over foreign viewers: Ne le dis à personne [Tell No One] by Guillaume Canet, which was released in seven countries, made a strong showing this summer on the other side of the Atlantic, grabbing more than $4.5 M at the American box office; Il y a longtemps que je t’aime [I’ve Loved You So Long] by Philippe Claudel, released in 12 countries, has attracted an audience of over a million; La graine et le mulet [Couscous] by Abdellatif Kechiche or Le fils de l’épicier [The Grocer’s Son] by Eric Guirado, released in 16 and 12 countries respectively, totalled 716,000 and 337,000 filmgoers. These films were genuine successes in France, finding an audience slowly but surely. This aroused interest among buyers from all over the world who, encouraged by the initiatives of Unifrance, decided to take a punt on these feature films.

Under pressure from the economic crisis, Unifrance now has new challenges to face. The newly elected president of the association, French producer Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre is keen to champion the institution and give it the means to develop a broader ambition. Like his predecessors, he is driven by a single objective: to spread the influence of French cinema as widely as possible.

Anne-Laure Bell