INTERVIEW
"The renewal of life is in Angoulême from August 28 to September 2", we hear in the trailer of the event. Because yes, the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival (FFA) does take place, and it opens its theaters on Friday. While most festivals have been canceled because of the health crisis linked to the coronavirus, moviegoers will therefore be able to at least meet in Charente. Guest from Europe 1, Dominique Besnehard, actor and producer, but also co-creator of the FFA, described to listeners the face that this 13th edition will take, called "Edition 2020" pronounced 'twenty-twenty') "because it there are enough misfortunes ".
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Despite the cancellation of other festivals, "we thought 'we're going to go!'"
Because 2020 is a special year, so will the festival. "We took a long time to decide if we were going to do it or not", tells Dominique Besnehard in the program Culture Médias , referring in particular to the reference which is the Cannes Film Festival, canceled for the very first time since the Second World War . Finally, "as the good news of the start of deconfinement progressed, we said to ourselves 'we're going to go!'". And they go there, supported by the National Center of Cinema CNC), "which did an important job with us because he felt that there would be no other showcase for the cinema".
Erase the history of Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine, Police of Anne Fontaine, Farewell to the idiots of Albert Dupontel… In total, 60 films will be presented, among which "absolutely extraordinary films", announces Dominique Besnehard. "Cinema is healthy in all its diversity, and it would be a shame not to show it to the public."
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Respect barrier gestures, and "make you want to go to the cinema"
The organizers are well aware of this: the Covid-19 is still there. And while the country fears to see a second wave of coronavirus break out, Dominique Besnehard affirms it: barrier gestures and physical distancing will be respected. For that, the sessions must, this year, be exclusively reserved by Internet.
During the sessions, the mask is obviously compulsory. "We expected 50% of attendance per session," said the guest from Europe 1. "Now we have reached 70%" he continues, saying he is in tune with what the prefecture tells them. A prefecture that he says is "listening", the FFA being an important event to support the local economy, more in times of Covid.
While last year, the FFA gathered some 40,000 spectators, Dominique Besnehard knows that this edition will not be on the same scale. "We will not be 40,000, but we will try to respect the measures, but above all to make people want to go to the cinema again," he says. "I hope that people have not developed too many bad habits of watching platforms on television, forgetting that the cinema is in theaters."