More than 85pc of seats for screenings in Budapest were sold during the festival, and interest was strong as well in the other eight cities around the country where new French films were shown.
Budapest's Corvin Cinema sold more than 3,300 tickets for films screened during the festival. Cinemas in the cities of Pécs, Győr, Szeged, Kecskemét, Miskolc, Debrecen, Szolnok and Eger sold a combined 3,900 tickets, with filmgoers in Szeged alone buying more than 1,000 tickets.
Audrey Tautou
The French actress Audrey Tautou, who charmed filmgoers in the 2001 Amélie, visited Budapest during the festival. Tautou appeared in one of the films on the festival programme: Hunting and Gathering. Based on Anna Gavalda's book of the same name, Tautou plays an anorexic painter tormented by her mother In Hunting and Gathering. A creative cook, played by Guillaume Canet, helps the shy woman regain her love for life. The film will go on general release in Hungary on April 24.
Many other artists made special appearances during the festival, among them Lucy Russel, from Angel, who is perhaps best known to international audiences for her roll in Batman Begins; Caramel director Nadin Labaki, who was accompanied by her husband, the composer Khaled Mouzanar; and Julie Ferrier from Paris, another film on the festival programme.
