DIFF ties with Festival Biarritz Amerique Latine

The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has announced a partnership with Festival Biarritz Amerique Latine, a Latin American film festival held annually in Biarritz, France. The partnership is the first of its kind for DIFF, and takes the form of an exchange, with each festival offering exhibition space to select films.

Biarritz Film Festival is the most attractive French event dedicated to Latin American cinematographies. It presents a selection of films to compete in different categories along with special focus, tributes and avant-premières. To be held from September 30 to October 6, 2013, Biarritz Film Festival shows not only the best of Latin American productions but also provides the perfect venue for discovering Latin American culture through exhibitions, meeting with Latin American authors, conferences and concerts.

During the festival, one of DIFF’s Arab films and its director will be showcased. In return, the festival will select a Latin American producer interested in co-production with the Arab world to attend DIFF’s Dubai Film Connection project market and the Dubai Film Market during DIFF’s 2013 edition, to be held December 6 to 14.

In addition, DIFF will include 10 films screened during the 2013 edition of the French festival in the Cinetech. The Cinetech, an initiative of Dubai Filmmart, is an electronic library of titles that provides sales agents, producers and other film professional’s access to hundreds of films from one terminal. Sales teams from the selected films will be on hand to facilitate the acquisition process.

Shivani Pandya, DIFF’s Managing Director, said: “With this mutually beneficial partnership, Arab cinema will continue to travel outside of the region to Europe and on to Latin America. Conversely, the Latin American films that are selected in Biarritz will gain exposure to the Middle Eastern and South Asian markets that are on DIFF’s doorstep. DIFF has always sought to leverage Dubai’s position as a crossroads, and this bridge to Europe and Latin American is another welcome pathway for Arab cinema to reach the world.”

Marc Bonduel, Managing Director of Festival Biarritz Amerique Latine added: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Dubai International Film Festival, the leading festival in the Middle East. This partnership will offer Latin American films selected in Biarritz a new world visibility beyond the French and European markets.”