— Film Festival Grant

For the last 27 years, Tournées Film Festival has brought the best of French cinema to American campuses, funding more than 1,000 French Film Festivals through its generous grant program.

Our Film Festival Grant is now part of Albertine Cinémathèque and continue to support French film festival on campuses.

Application Guidelines

1 | You must be a Member of Albertine Cinémathèque to apply.

2 | Complete the Film Festival Grant Application before June 6, 2023 DEADLINE EXTENDED!

— You must plan to show the films as part of a festival consisting of a minimum of 6 films including at least 1 Classic (the films may be presented as part of a larger film festival) from the Film Selection.

OPTIONAL: if you wish to have a larger festival (MORE THAN 6 FILMS), you may want to consider more titles from the FILM SELECTION or our partner program from Villa Albertine and Unifrance, Young French Cinema.

— The screenings must take place within the university year for which the grant has been allocated.

— Please be as thorough and detailed as possible in order to adequately convey the concept for your festival, and your enthusiasm for the project (even if your institution has participated in the program in the past, please do not assume that we are familiar with your school and festival).

— Please plan your budget in details, the amount of the Film Festival Grant – $2,400 – might not cover the full cost of your festival and will be processed after your festival has taken place. We highly recommend that you consider raising additional funds.

— Members are eligible to receive a Festival Grant for several consecutive years, but they must reapply each year even if their institution has participated in the program in the past.

— We will notify applicants of our decision by the end of June.

If you are selected for the Film Festival Grant

— We will send you an Agreement for signature via DocuSign and will request that you include a duly completed and signed W9 Form for your institution.

— Albertine Cinémathèque & FACE Foundation logos should be included and the credit line should be: [supported by.] Albertine Cinematheque, a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the CNC / Centre National du Cinema, and SACEM / Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain

— Post-Screening Form:
A post-screening report using the online form will be required a document containing the information regarding your festival budget, copies of the distributors’ invoices, links to any reviews or newspaper articles related to screenings, your institution’s bank details and payment information.

— Payment of the Grant:
A wire transfer of the amount of $2,400 will be process within 1 months after receipt of the post screening materials.

NB: We will send you the full amount of the Grant, which is $2,400, regardless of the amount spent for your festival (we will not accept refunds). If the total amount spent on screening fees for the 6 films is less than $2,400, you are allowed to use the Grant money to pay for indirect/overhead costs for your festival.

Festival Organisation

— Contact the Distributors to book the films and arrange for the screenings.

1 | Students Attendance

— Promote and organize your Festival!

— Start advertising way ahead of the event.

— Include the screenings as part of a curriculum or as an extra credit option: students who are required to attend form a core audience at festivals or events and Professors who assign the screenings as part of a course are usually more apt to get involved with the promotion and organization.

— Collaborate with other departments and professors: more people involved brings larger funds and a better promotional and organizational outcome. For a festival, you could establish a committee to select the films.

— Choose someone to introduce the screenings and facilitate post-screening discussions. This usually results in a larger audience.

— Ask students to write a review, paper, or diary entry on the films for extra credit.

— Encourage student involvement in the organization of the festival or event via internships or work-study programs. There are many students who are genuinely interested in this kind of work and it can be a good way to increase interest and attendance.

— Organize a Q&A with the filmmaker. That always attracts an audience.

— Screen the films on different days of the week—some weekdays and some weekends. Most people have set activities on a specific day, so this will ensure that there are options for everybody.

— For a festival, choose your opening night film wisely: selecting a more accessible first film is a good way to draw a wider audience and create interest in the films to follow. If the first film is too challenging, this can negatively impact audience turnout for the duration of the festival.

2 | Promotion

— Use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, discussion forums, etc…  you can create a group or an event to give regular updates, ask students to help by posting on their own pages.

— Post the information on the school and your academic department’s website.

— Ask professors to make announcements in class.

— Use the university’s PR office. They can help spread the word by sending out press releases to the local media.

— Contact the local media directly. Newspapers, radio shows, and magazines are great resources to reach out to audiences outside the campus.

— Use the campus media outlets. If your campus has a newspaper, magazine, TV station, or radio shows, they should be able to help.

— Print posters, flyers, and/or postcards, and put them up in strategic locations around campus.

— Ask academic departments related to the film’s topic to put up a poster or flyer on their community boards or murals.

— Post the event on the university and strategic academic department’s calendar.Reach out to local community organizations that have an interest in French culture or some other topic related to the film/s you are screening.

3 | Additional Fundings

— Look for internal grants. A lot of universities have grants for cultural events available to its many departments. Look into what is being offered by your school, and see if it would be compatible with the Festival Grant.

— Partner up with other university departments. This partnership will not only help you with promoting the festival, but it may also help finance it. All departments have a small budget for events, and if each one of the partnering departments assigns some of that budget for your festival, you’ll be able to cover the expenses.

— Look into non-academic departments: student associations, the university library, film clubs…

— Organize a fundraising and enlist students to help.

— Partner up with your local Alliance Française.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations that worked for your festival and you want to share them with us and future festival or event organizers, please

Acknowledgment

Film Selection Committee:
Florence Almozini, Nicholas Elliott, Harris Dew, Delphine Selles-Alvarez

Festival Grant Selection Committee:
Anne Kern, Jamie Berthe, Sam Di lorio

Contact

Sandrine Neveux
Program Officer
albertinecinematheque@face-foundation.tempurl.host