Cinéfranco is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, which presents a weeklong program of both Canadian and international French language films.

History

The festival was established in 1997 by Marcelle Lean, a former chair of the Ontario Film Development Corporation, and was staged for the first time in February 1998."Festival opens a door to French film". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', February 27, 1998. Lean remained the event's executive director as of 2015. Unlike larger events such as the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

, all films throughout the week were screened in a single theatre venue."Bringing more than l'amour to the English". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', March 26, 2010. To establish broader audience appeal beyond the city's francophone community alone, all films were screened with

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

subtitles. Separately from the main festival, an annual youth program of films for children and teenagers is also staged each year. The separate youth program was launched for the first time in 2007. The festival presented an annual award, the Radio-Canada Audience Award, to the film voted by festival attendees as the best film in that year's program. TFO also formerly sponsored an award for the most popular film in the youth program. In 2015, Lean told ''

L'Express de Toronto ''L'Express'', formerly ''L'Express de Toronto'', is a French-language weekly newspaper, published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The paper concentrates primarily on local and regional news for Franco-Ontarians in the Greater Toronto Area and Centra ...

'' that the festival was in financial trouble and may be forced to cease operations if it could not renegotiate its operational support and sponsorship agreements."Cinéfranco pourrait disparaître"
''

'', June 9, 2015. The main festival was initially cancelled in 2016,"Cinefranco makes a belated return..."
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'', April 15, 2016. although the youth program was still staged;"Cinefranco makes a comeback"
''

'', October 27, 2016. instead, Tournée Québec Cinéma, a program of Québec Cinéma which presents a touring minifestival of Quebec films in various locations across Canada, added an event in Toronto to its schedule. The event was later revived, however, with a smaller-scale Cinéfranco presented in October 2016 at the Alliance Française de Toronto.

Audience Award

* 2009: ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

'',

Cédric Klapisch Cédric Klapisch ( ; born 4 September 1961) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. Life and career Klapisch was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He is from a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were deported to Ausc ...

* 2010: '' Female Agents (Les Femmes de l'ombre)'', Jean-Paul Salomé * 2011: '' Bacon on the Side (Il reste du jambon?)'', Anne Depétrini * 2012: '' Free Men (Les Hommes libres)'', Ismaël Ferroukhi * 2013: '' What's in a Name? (Le Prénom)'', Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière * 2014: '' The Gilded Cage (La Cage dorée)'', Ruben Alves * 2015: '' Once in a Lifetime (Les Héritiers)'', Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar * 2016-2017: ''no award presented'' * 2018: ''

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

'',

Ricardo Trogi Ricardo Trogi (born March 25, 1970) is a Canadian filmmaker, director and actor. Career Trogi was born in Quebec City, Quebec. His first two films, '' Québec-Montréal'', about seven twenty-something travellers driving between the two cities, and ...

TFO Prize for Best Youth Film

*2009: '' The Necessities of Life'' (''Ce qu'il faut pour vivre''),

Benoît Pilon Benoît Pilon (born July 27, 1962) is a francophone Canadian director and screenwriter particularly noted for his innovative films and documentaries on the human condition. He is also the co-founder of ''"Les Films de l'autre" productions'', whic ...

*2010: ''

Little Nicholas ''Little Nicholas'' (french: Le Petit Nicolas), also known as ''Petit Nicolas'' (UK), is a 2009 French-Belgian family comedy film directed by Laurent Tirard, who co-wrote with Grégoire Vigneron and Alain Chabat. It is based on a series of children ...

'' (''Le Petit Nicolas''), Laurent Tirard *2011: ''

Trouble at Timpetill ''Trouble at Timpetill'' (french: Les Enfants de Timpelbach) is a 2008 French fantasy adventure film written and directed by Nicolas Bary, based on the novel of the same name by Henry Winterfeld. The film won the TFO Prize for Best Youth Film at ...

'' (''Les Enfants de Timpelbach''), Nicolas Bary *2012: '' War of the Buttons'', Yann Samuel

References

External links

Cinéfranco
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cinefranco Film festivals in Toronto 1997 establishments in Ontario Film festivals established in 1997 Franco-Ontarian organizations Children's film festivals in Canada