Cannes Festival to feature a dozen EU supported films

Opening on May 11, the Cannes Festival 2005 will feature 12 films supported by the MEDIA Programme.
Included in the various Cannes selections for this year, is the opening film, 'Lemming', by Dominik Moll, and also 'Caché', by Michael Haneke, 'Manderlay' by Lars von Trier and 'L’Enfant' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, all in the official selection.
For the third time, in association with the Festival, the European Commission is also organising, a Europe Day on the theme of "European films and the Information Society". Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, will present for the second time at Cannes, the European Union "New Talents” Prize on 16 May, the day before Europe Day.
Nine out of ten films distributed outside their production country are supported by MEDIA. The European Union, through this programme worth 513 million euros between 2001 and 2006, contributes to creating a European audiovisual market, and to European cultural diversity while creating the conditions to increase the competitiveness of our audiovisual industries.
As usual, several films shown this year on the Croisette have received MEDIA support for their development or will receive it for their distribution.
Viviane Reding has warmly welcomed the creative flowering of European film-making and the strong showing of MEDIA supported films in this years Cannes selection.
In all, the 58th Cannes Festival and the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs have included in their selections 12 feature films that received funding support from the MEDIA Programme for their development and/or their distribution. These are:

• Opening/Official selection: Lemming, by Dominik Moll (€125.000)
• Official Selection: Caché, by Michael Haneke (€326,371), Manderlay by Lars von Trier (€255,822), and L’Enfant by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (€4.009)
• Out of competition: Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion (€100.000), C'est pas tout à fait la vie dont j'avais rêvé by Michel Picoli (€10.000).
• Un certain regard: Le temps qui reste by François Ozon (€55.600) and Habana Blues by Benito Zembrano (€168.000)
• International Critics’ Week: L'orrizonte degli eventi by Daniele Vicari (€83,750) La petite Jérusalem by Karin Albou (€30,745) and Vento di Terra by Vincenzo Marra (€32,439)
• La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs: Cache Cache by Yves Caumon (€77,000).

The MEDIA Programmes remain of vital importance to the European audiovisual sector.
In 2004, MEDIA invested 110 million euros in European cinema, in the fields of training, of development, of distribution and of promotion.
Last year, among other actions, MEDIA financed more than 500 distribution campaigns, enabling 52 films to be seen outside their territory of origin.
Further information available visit: //www.4rfv.co.uk/link-error.aspx
(SP)