French Film Festival, anniversary edition, in 12 Romanian cities from July 1

The French Film Festival (FFF) in Romania celebrates 25 years of existence with an anniversary summer edition that will take place July 1 - 11 in 12 cities across the country, agerpres reports.

"Film has always been a privileged way of expressing French culture, and we are proud that the French Film Festival is the longest-running festival dedicated to a national cinema in Romania," French ambassador to Romania Laurence Auer told a news conference at the Elvire Popesco Cinema Hall.

Organisers have designed five sections of five films each, namely a Young Talents - Feature Film competition, a Films of the Year Panorama, a Carte blanche for five Romanian filmmakers, a Young Talents - Short Films sompetition and Le Meilleur du FFF, the best of the festival.

"This year, we built the structure of the festival around an equation, namely 5 x 5 = 25, meaning five sections of five films each to mark 25 editions of the French Film Festival," said festival coordinator Ioana Dragomirescu.

She added that in the Young Talents - Feature Films competition there will be new voices of the French cinema, five debut films with a remarkable journey that will compete for the Audience Award.

The following films will run in this section: "Slalom" - directed by Charlene Favier; "Seize Printemps" (Spring Blossom) - directed by Suzanne Lindon; "Au nom de la terre" (In the Name of the Land) - directed by Edouard Bergeon; "Vaurien" (Rascal) - directed by Peter Dourountzis, and "La troisieme guerre" (The Third War) - directed by Giovanni Aloi.

The Films of the Year Panorama, which brings together some of the most important recent French productions, presents six films, one being a "bonus": "Adieu les cons" (Bye Bye Morons) - directed by Albert Dupontel; "Le Discours" (The Speech) - directed by Laurent Tirard; "Antoinette dans les Cevennes" - (My Donkey, My Lover and I) directed by Caroline Vignal; "Un Triomphe" (The Big Hit) - directed by Emmanuel Courcol;"Les choses qu'on dit, les choses qu'on fait" (The Things We Say, the Things We Do) - directed by Emannuel Mouret, and "Ete 85" (Summer of 85)- directed by Francois Ozon.

In the Young Talents - Short Films competition section, a first for the festival, a jury of three young film critics will choose the winning director from among "Palma" - directed by Alexe Poukine; "Dustin" - directed by Naila Guiguet, "Genius Loci" - directed by Adrien Merigeau; "Confines dehors" (Locked Out)- directed by Julien Goudichaud, and a fifth one, yet to be determined.

Le Meilleur du FFF debuted online on April 30 and has so far presented the films "Grand Central" - directed by Rebecca Zlotowski; "Le gout des Autres" (The Taste of Others) - directed by Agnes Jaoul, presented on May 21, and "Hippocrates" (Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor )- directed by Thomas Lilti, presented on May 28. "Le Naissance des Pieuvres" (Water Lilies) - directed by Celine Sciamma will follow on June 11, and "Les Deux Amis" (Two Friends) - directed by Louis Garrel on June 25.

One of the novelties of the anniversary edition, Carte Blanche, allows the exploration of the cinematographic universe of five of the most important Romanian filmmakers, each proposing a classic French title that has inspired them

Thus, Radu Jude recommends "Traite de bave et d'eternite" (Venom and Eternity), directed by Isidore Isou; Cristian Mungiu - "Van Gogh", directed by Maurice Pialat; Adina Pintilie - "Holy Motors", directed by Leos Carax; Cristi Puiu - "Buffet froid" (Cold Cuts), directed by Bertrand Blier, and Corneliu Porumboiu -" L'Argent" (Money), directed by Robert Bresson.

The films of the festival will be presented both in cinema halls and outdoors and, for the first time in the history of the festival, online.