• Cinema

BNP Paribas, official partner to Cannes Directors'Fortnight, steps up its commitment to fostering the emergence of cinema talent

The 50th edition of the Directors' Fortnight will take place from May 9 to 19, 2018 in Cannes, then in Marseille, Paris, Geneva, Rome, Milan, Florence and Brussels. Created in 1968, the annual Directors’ Fortnight event is designed to both highlight movies made by young directors and pay homage to great cinematic works by recognised directors. Directors’ Fortnight, which takes an independent, non-competitive, and free-entry approach to the film screenings, also promotes the search for new talent from all over the world through the ‘Factory’ programme.

The 2018 selection

This year is not quite like the others, for the Directors' Fortnight which is already celebrating its fiftieth edition. For this occasion, the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival selected twenty films, among the 1,609 feature films (and 1,667 short films) viewed, including six in French. The Fortnight promises new discoveries this year.

Download the 50th fortnight selection

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Fortnight in Action, a nation-wide mechanism for spreading cultural democratisation

To mark this 50th edition, the initiative entitled ‘Fortnight at La Bocca’ is being stepped up on to a national scale under the title ‘Fortnight in Action’. Under this programme, which is aimed at the residents of priority neighbourhoods, such events as selected screenings from the Directors’ Fortnight, meet-ups with film crew, and image-related workshops will be run all over France. The initiative is targeted mainly at youngsters, including school students, in priority neighbourhoods, newcomers, women in disadvantaged circumstances and people undergoing re-training programmes for work or study purposes. BNP Paribas, which has made the social inclusion of young people and the development of the social and cultural environment across all regions of France two of the main pillars of the Group’s Company Engagement policy, was determined to assist the implementation of this programme on a nation-wide scale as part of its involvement in Director’s Fortnight.

BNP Paribas activities in Cannes

The partnership offers BNP Paribas with the opportunity to maintain a strong presence in Cannes throughout the festival:

  1. 4 May: inauguration of the Cinéma(s) en Liberté exhibition at the Suquet des Artistes, which looks back at the early years of Directors’ Fortnight from 1969 to 1972 and provides a snapshot of the world during those exciting years in which filmmaking was revitalised with the advent of new directors and new trends in movie-making.
  2. 8 May: BNP Paribas open the ‘BNP Paribas Terrace’ at the Croisette, a venue designed for meeting and exchanging views with the Bank’s clients and partners from the movie industry.
  3. 8 May: opening of the ‘Fortnight in Action’ (2pm in the Théâtre de la Licorne), on the eve of the official opening of the 2018 Directors’ Fortnight, where all programme participants are invited to attend.  
  4. 10 May 2018, BNP Paribas will hold on the Terrace a pitching session with eight young film directors taking part in the Tunisian Factory, this year’s Factory edition.
  5. 14 May: An evening celebrating the 50th anniversary of Directors’ Fortnight, of which BNP Paribas is the official partner.

BNP Paribas is launching a new investment whose purpose is to finance films made by promising new talent in the film industry.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, of which BNP Paribas is the official partner, the Group has decided to step up its commitment to fostering new films by launching a new investment fund, ‘BNP Paribas New Cinema Talent’, whose purpose is to meet the specific needs of talented new filmmakers. With a budget of 1 million euros, the ‘BNP Paribas New Cinema Talent’ fund will enable the bank to take a long-term approach by providing up-and-coming filmmakers with individual support and finance for their first and/or second films. The selection criteria will include, in addition to the solid potential of the venture, a special focus on films that deal with major issues facing our society and in line with the values and concerns of the BNP Paribas Group: these include climate change, local ecosystems, diversity and social inclusion, and a positive vision of the future.

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