Honoring French animations, documentaries, and dramas for TV that have achieved the highest international sales, the 18th Unifrance TV Export Awards were presented on February 8, 2022, at the Trianon in Paris during the awards ceremony for the PROCIREP French TV Producers' Prize. These awards, which highlight the strong appeal of our French TV productions in international markets, recognize the wonderful work of French distribution companies, which Unifrance accompanies on a daily basis. We heartily congratulate all of the winners in 2022: Federation, who greatly contributed to the popularity of Ollie & Moon - Season 1 around the world; Mediawan Rights, who can be credited with the tremendous international success of Kubrick by Kubrick; and Newen Connect, who achieved great feats with HPI - Season 1. In the movie sector, just a few days earlier, the film Around the World in 80 Days by Samuel Tourneux received the Unifrance Trophy (awarded to the French film shot in French that generated the highest spectator numbers in foreign theaters the previous year) at the awards ceremony for the 29th "Trophées du Film Français" organized by the magazine Le Film Français.

On Thursday, February 10, another focal point of Unifrance's activities will begin with the opening of the Berlin International Film Festival - as a physical event, even if in a reduced format. This year will showcase an exceptional offering of French films, with 42 features and shorts produced or coproduced by France, including new films by François Ozon, Claire Denis, Mikhaël Hers, and Rithy Panh in competition. Nobody's Hero by Alain Guiraudie will open the Panorama section, while Incredible But True by Quentin Dupieux and About Joan by Laurent Larivière will be screened in the Gala program, and festivalgoers will have the chance to discover Coma by Bertrand Bonello and See You Friday, Robinson by Mitra Farahani in the Encounters section. We are also delighted to see the series Podezření (Suspicion) by Štěpán Hulík, coproduced by France and the Czech Republic, presented in the Berlinale Series section, as well as three French series that, due to their international potential, will benefit from the Berlinale Series Market Selects label given by the EFM (Diana Boss, Narvalo – Season 2, and Parlement – Season 2).

An outstanding delegation of some forty artists will make the trip to Berlin for the event, led by Isabelle Huppert, whom the festival is honoring with an Honorary Golden Bear Award for lifetime achievement. Unifrance will provides spaces for crew members from the films presented to hold their meetings with international media representatives. We are also proud to be welcoming a delegation of film sales agents and TV distributors at our virtual Unifrance stand at the EFM.

These two key events attest to the abundance and high quality of our productions, both for film and television, and to their strong potential to achieve international exposure. They epitomize the meaning and the strength of the renewed determination that we wish to give Unifrance as a voice for French creativity, in all its genres and all its forms, beyond our borders.

Serge Toubiana, Daniela Elstner, and Hervé Michel,
President, Executive Director, and Vice-President of Unifrance