08/01/2021 - The 11th online festival organised by UniFrance will unspool from 15 January-15 February on more than 60 platforms worldwide and will include a competition comprising ten features

"Forever Young", "Crazy Loving Families", "True Heroines", "French Ghost Stories", "On the Road" and "Move is Love", not to mention “Kids Corner” and “New Horizons”: the various thematic sections of the 11^th MyFrenchFilmFestival (organised by UniFrance from 15 January-15 February 2021) once again promise a highly diverse selection for the first French-language film festival in the world to be held entirely online, which has racked up a total of more than 54 million viewings in over 200 territories since it was first established. This virtual showcase should prove to be even more timely in this global context of the health crisis and its never-ending string of movie-theatre closures, with the French government having incidentally announced yesterday that national cinemas would stay shuttered until the end of January at the earliest.

This year, 33 films subtitled in ten languages will be available directly on the festival’s website (myfrenchfilmfestival.com) and on more than 60 VoD platforms (including the Apple TV app in over 90 territories, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and MUBI). The short films in the 2021 selection will be available for free worldwide, while the features will cost €1.99 per film or €7.99 for a bundle. Interestingly, the festival is totally free of charge in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Poland, Romania and Russia/CIS.

The jury of filmmakers who will be tasked with deciding on the winner of a prize worth €15,000 will comprise Italian documentarian Gianfranco Rosi, French-Algerian director Mounia Meddour, Canadian actress and filmmaker Monia Chokri, Colombian helmer Franco Lolli and French producer (and formerly costume designer) Rosalie Varda. Two other awards will be handed out by the audience and by the international press jury.

The ten-strong batch of features in competition is made up of films that passed through Cannes (the animated flick Josep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aurel
film profile] by Aurel, You Deserve a Lover [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile] by Hafsia Herzi, Heroes Don’t Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aude Léa Rapin
film profile] by Aude Léa Rapin and Burning Ghost [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Stéphane Batut), Locarno (Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] by Boris Lojkine and the documentary Adolescentes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sébastien Lifshitz) and Rotterdam (Enormous [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Sophie Letourneur, and the Belgian-French co-production Working Girls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anne Paulicevich and Frédér…
film profile] by duo Frédéric Fonteyne and Anne Paulicevich). Also battling it out are Just Kids [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
interview: Christophe Blanc
film profile] by Christophe Blanc and Felicità [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Bruno Merle.

Worth noting out of competition are the Swiss feature Madame [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Stéphane Riethauser, the Canadian movie Kuessipan by Myriam Verreault and the heritage film Orpheus by Jean Cocteau.

(Translated from French)