Part film showcase, part cultural salon, the Monaco Charity Film Festival is unlike any other.
Four films per day are screened, for one week all sessions are free to the public. A five-member jury awards prizes for film, director, scriptwriter and actor/actress. In addition, there are charity auctions and panel events and a closing-night black-tie gala dinner. For its fourth edition, program director Georges Chamchoum has assembled a lineup covering most of the geographic bases — the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East — with many selections evincing socially conscious themes. Helmer-scribe Johan Kramer’s “Sing for Darfur” tracks various stories set around a charity concert in Barcelona for the victims of the African civil war “Eagle Flute,” from Chinese mainland helmer Tao Jiang, follows a young Chinese girl’s adoption by a nomadic Tibetan family, and her quest to find her birth parents. According to fest founder and chairman Vicente-Andres Zaragoza, MCFF’s mission is to provide a platform for new independent filmmakers, and to raise money for impoverished and abandoned children around the world. TIP SHEET
When: May 11-16