26th European First Film Festival : Lights... Camera... Action

A quarter of a century! Launched in 1989, the European First Films Festival, planned in Angers from January 17th to 26th, will be in its 26th edition. In twenty five years, around 3 700 films including 1 600 first works have been screened. Last year, some 70 000 filmgoers were part of the event which, year after year, highlighted numerous young directors who, later, became famous like Arnaud Desplechin, Paolo Sorrentino or Thomas Vinterberg.

During the 2014 edition, more than 70 films will be screened in six official categories : European features films, French features films, European short films, French short films, student films and animated films. Two thousands euros in awards will be given out by juries and the public at the end of the festival. A selection of films out of competition will be also presented in four categories : free style (first works made without any restrictions), next shots (films that were made by filmmakers discovered at Premiers Plans) and a selection of short and feature Chinese films dicovered at the Beiging First Film festival. Moreover, since 1991, the event has introduced public audiences to the work of young screenwriters with the readings of French scripts for first features.

Many local authorities and companies are involved in the festival and finance the € 200 000 awards : the city of Angers, the Maine-et-Loire general council, the Angers Ccas, Angers University, the Western Catholic University, Comec, Eolane and Scania. The composition of the jury will be disclosed in early January.

The metamorphosis is the topic of the 2014 edition. The festival gives the opportunity to discover film history and heritage thanks to retrospectives on national cinematographies, tributes to major and unrecognized authors and actors. One of them will be paid to Patrice Chéreau, French opera and theatre director, filmaker, actor and producer, native from the Angers region, who died last october. He was a partner of the festival. The Premiers Plans festival will also revive the Gaumont Variétés which closed its doors last October what illustrates that the city cinemas could become undersized if the event were due to become more important.