Cinéfranco

Cinéfranco is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which presents a weeklong program of both Canadian and international French language films.[1]

History

The festival was established in 1997 by Marcelle Lean,[2] a former chair of the Ontario Film Development Corporation,[3] and was staged for the first time in February 1998.[4] Lean remained the event's executive director as of 2015.

Unlike larger events such as the Toronto International Film Festival, all films throughout the week were screened in a single theatre venue.[5] To establish broader audience appeal beyond the city's francophone community alone, all films were screened with English language subtitles.[6]

Separately from the main festival, an annual youth program of films for children and teenagers is also staged each year.[5] The separate youth program was launched for the first time in 2007.

The festival presented an annual award, the Radio-Canada Audience Award, to the film voted by festival attendees as the best film in that year's program.[7] TFO also formerly sponsored an award for the most popular film in the youth program.

In 2015, Lean told L'Express de Toronto that the festival was in financial trouble and may be forced to cease operations if it could not renegotiate its operational support and sponsorship agreements.[8] The main festival was initially cancelled in 2016,[9] although the youth program was still staged;[10] instead, Tournée Québec Cinéma, a program of Québec Cinéma which presents a touring minifestival of Quebec films in various locations across Canada, added an event in Toronto to its schedule.[9] The event was later revived, however, with a smaller-scale Cinéfranco presented in October 2016 at the Alliance Française de Toronto.[10]

Audience Award

TFO Prize for Best Youth Film

References
  1. "Cinefranco focuses on francophone films". Toronto Star, March 27, 2014.
  2. "Film fest to bring French movies out of obscurity: February's cinefranco is the brainchild of its well-connected executive director". The Globe and Mail, January 21, 1998.
  3. "OFDC chair appointed". The Globe and Mail, February 9, 1998.
  4. "Festival opens a door to French film". The Globe and Mail, February 27, 1998.
  5. "Bringing more than l'amour to the English". Toronto Star, March 26, 2010.
  6. "Screening the real French cinema ; Second annual Cinefranco festival celebrates popular francophone film". Toronto Star, February 18, 1999.
  7. "Cinefranco wraps with awards to Paris, Pilon". The Globe and Mail, April 9, 2009.
  8. "Cinéfranco pourrait disparaître". L'Express de Toronto, June 9, 2015.
  9. "Cinefranco makes a belated return...". Now, April 15, 2016.
  10. "Cinefranco makes a comeback". Now, October 27, 2016.
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