Inaugurated on April 30, 2015, in Havana, the French Film Festival, created in 1997, is today a recognized event in Cuba as well as in France. It allows Cuban audiences to discover the most popular French films every year in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and also in more than 40 provincial cities. And so it was Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako's film with multiple Césars, that was screened the evening of the festival's launch in the Cuban capital. The rest of the programming is equally impressive with more than 25 films in the line-up, including Laurent Cantet's Retour à Ithaque
This year, the festival delegation in Havana was particularly prestigious in terms of filmmakers, with the participation of Costa Gavras, famous director and President of the Cinémathèque Française; Laurent Cantet, director and winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival; producer Sylvie Pialat; film economist René Bonnell; and festival directors Christophe Barratier and Nouredine Essadi. Among the newcomers to the festival is Violette Barratier, a promising young actress who recently made her theatre debut with great success.
