Top filmmakers including Richard Linklater, Rebecca Zlotkowski, Jafar Panahi, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Wim Wenders, Tarik Saleh and Jia Zhang-ke have signed on to take part in the International Resilience Initiative for Independent Screens unveiled Monday during the Lumiere Summit in France.
The French government has launched what has been dubbed IRIS as a bid to boost the exhibition of independently financed films from around the world. It’s part of the larger push reflected by the Lumiere Summit gathering by France to exert influence across the global film marketplace. In addition to the launch of IRIS, the French government is working to establish what it has dubbed “the Lumiere Alliance” of global film commissions. It’s part of the “multilateralism” around the future of film that French President Emmanuel Macron and the nation’s CNC film body have aggressively promoted in recent weeks, culminating with today’s summit.
The goal with IRIS is “protect, strengthen and connect the cinemas, distributors and nonprofit networks that make film diversity possible and to advance independent film circulation worldwide, particularly where local actors are most isolated, vulnerable or under threat,” as it was further described by materials distributed at the summit. The Lumiere gathering has drawn a who’s who of global content to the historic French Riviera town of Saint Paul de Vence, where the daylong conference is unfolding at the Fondation Maeght art foundation and museum.
