Introduction: The Kaleidoscope of Cinéma-monde

Summary

The first cinema awards specifically dedicated to internationally produced francophone films were created in 2013, under the supervision of the then Canadian-based Association Trophees Francophones du Cinéma (or ATFciné), with the assistance of filmmakers and organisers of film festivals and national film awards working in Belgium, Senegal, Quebec and France. The initiative behind these film awards is unique in that it brings together a variety of film industries and national cinemas, and is inclusive in its definition of ‘francophone’, expanding the geographical limits of what is customarily considered the francophone world and formally recognising an increasing number of films that combine French with many other languages or do not contain any French at all. Such inclusivity has not yet been fully extended to the academic realm, where divisions between French and francophone categories linger. An article entitled ‘Cinéma-monde? Towards a Concept of Francophone Cinema’ by Bill Marshall (2012) represents the most significant and promising step in that direction. In it Marshall calls for increased critical attention to develop the concept of ‘francophone film’ in both French and Film Studies, ‘given the remappings necessary both in relation to the global and transnational turn in analysing film and in rear guard attempts to assert French and other cultural nationalisms that also take place’ (2012: 51). For Marshall, francophone cinema, by decentring French-language cinema studies, ‘dramatically focuses attention on four elements: borders, movement, language, and lateral connections’ (2012: 42).

This collection seeks to build upon Marshall's intervention and those of other scholars who have theorised transnational and world cinemas and to extend and adapt the debate that erupted after the publication of the 2007 manifesto ‘For a littérature-monde in French’ (Barbery et al.) from literature to cinema. Whereas Marshall employs ‘cinéma-monde’ in his title, he adorns it with a question mark and only refers back to the term again once in the text. In its place he opts for the concept of ‘francophone’ cinema derived from the Deleuzian concept of ‘francophonising’, an active verb that outlines a minorising of a heretofore centred notion of ‘French’ cinema (2012: 44).