The FIFO association is delighted to share the results from the 11th FIFO that took place at the Maison de la Culture from 3rd to 9th February 2014. Festival attendance shows that the aura of the event continues to grow and assert its importance in the Polynesian cultural landscape as well as in the audiovisual world. This year the organisers totalled 27, 860 entries, including 7,086 school pupils.

The FIFO international jury, chaired by Mr Luc Jacquet, a renowned film director, awarded the following prizes:

FIFO JURY– FRANCE TELEVISIONS GRAND PRIX: NICKEL, LE TRESOR DES KANAK, directed by Anne Pitoiset and Laurent Cibien and produced by Coproduction Zadig Productions, Aaa Production & France Télévisions,

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: NUCLEAR SAVAGE directed by Adam Jonas Horowitz and produced by Primordial Soup Company,

JURY PRIZE: LA COMPAGNIE DES ARCHIPELS directed by Jacques Navarro-Rovira and produced by France Télévisions, Polynésie 1^ère, Beau geste, Grand Angle production & Bleu lagon production,

JURY PRIZE: BIG NAME NO BLANKET directed by Steven McGregor and produced by Night Sky Films Pty Ltd.

The PUBLIC PRIZE was awarded to ANANAHI, DEMAIN directed by Cécile Tessier Gendreau and produced by France Télévisions, Polynésie 1^ère & Anekdota production.

As last year the BEST SHORT FILM PRIZE was also awarded: I’M GOING TO MUM’S, directed by Lauren Jackson and produced by Andrew Cochrane & Jeremy Macey.

Over the course of these 6 days, introductory workshops were available to the public for free: scriptwriting, Go-Pro shooting and audiovisual editing, Stop-Motion, and lastly a new one, the Web documentary workshop.

This year Oceania Pitch, was led by producer Hind Saih and was of a high standard. 10 projects were pitched.NIKKI SI’ULEPA, presenting her project TAKU IPUKAREA won the BEST PITCH PRIZE this year.

The 8^th Pacific Television Conference gathered many partners, who were able to agree on multiple common issues and establish important projects for the future of audiovisual in Oceania. Suggestions were made to broadcast news regarding FIFO on the regional channels present at the conference.

The only regret was that the ‘OFF’ fringe events and conferences available to the public were less popular this year than during previous years, despite the quality of the speakers and the evening events scheduled.

Lastly, the ‘meeting for festival organisers’ that was held for the first time at FIFO provided an opportunity for partnerships that FIFO would like to implement with regional festivals to be addressed. It has already been established that FIFO will be represented in May 2014 at ‘Documentary Edge’ in New Zealand and at the ‘Hawaiian International Film Festival’ (HIFF) in Hawaii in October. Furthermore, exchanges of films and skills are being reviewed for the next FIFO, notably with the Anuu-ru aboro Festival in New Caledonia.

The FIFO Association would like to thank the region and its services, the State and Fonds Pacifique, Papeete Town Hall, as well as the France Télévisions group, Polynésie 1^ère and its partners from the start, OPT and MANA, EDT and GIE Tahiti Tourisme, Air Tahiti Nui a new arrival amongst the official partners, as well as the DGEN for its investment, without forgetting all the sponsors who enabled this Pacific Festival to grow with their logistical, financial and human assistance. Particular thanks to the Média Polynésie group, Hertz, as well as young trainees who joined the team for the week: pupils from the ISEPP, DOCEO Formation, the ECT and pupils from the CMA. Furthermore hats off to the Maison de la Culture - Te Fare Tauhiti Nui staff who enabled a successful 11^thFIFO, as well as the many volunteers who joined the Festival this year.

As he had previously informed us, M. Wallès KOTRA is ending his role as chairman of the FIFO Association to become one of the vice-chairmen, whilst Mr Heremoana MAAMAATUAIAHUTAPU was elected chairman of AFIFO on 8th February during the FIFO general assembly.

FIFO is already looking forward to next year from 31st January to 8th February 2015 in the Maison de la Culture gardens!

Focus on Australia and New Zealand

In the wake of its 11^th year, a meeting for documentary festivals from the Pacific region was hosted for the first time by FIFO that is also setting sail for New Zealand and Australia. We will in fact be ‘special guests’ of the Alliance Française French Film Festival in March 2014.
 
Two films from the 10^th FIFO ‘La Monique, une blessure Calédonienne’ and ‘La fabuleuse histoire de la tête Maorie,’ will be screened from 1^st to 22nd March in Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington and Dunedin. On March 1^st, the screening will be followed by a discussion with FIFO representatives, Miriama Bono and Khadidja Benouataf.
 
FIFO will also be in Australia, with three films, ‘La Monique , une blessure Calédonienne,’ ‘Et vogue aux australes’ and ‘Jacques Brel , dernière ligne droite’ that will be presented from 4th March to 28th April in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Byron Bay. An opportunity for the public to meet us has been scheduled in Sydney and Brisbane.
 
The French Film Festival, celebrating its 25th year, is organised by Alliances françaises with the aim of promoting cinema productions and French culture. This provides a wonderful opportunity for FIFO to present a Francophone, Caledonian and Polynesian line-up at the heart of these major events.
 
From 4th to 9th March, FIFO will also be a guest at DOC WEEK in Adelaide, a key event uniting audiovisual professionals over the course of a week. FIFO has proposed two directors to participate in training workshops, Nune Luepack for Caledonia, and Philippes Sintes for Polynesia.  Miriama Bono and Khadidja Benouataf will meet Australian directors there to start preparing for the 12th festival.
 
These two operations are part of FIFO’s ‘Hors les Murs’ or fringe programme that organisers anticipate developing throughout the year, so as to enable FIFO documentaries to journey and therefore spread the word about Oceania in the Pacific and mainland France.