Luxembourg well represented at the 70th Cannes Film Festival

Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister, Minister for Culture and Minister for Communications and the Media, and Their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg took to the steps to watch the opening ceremony of the 70th edition of the Luxembourg Film Festival.^e Cannes Film Festival.

To mark the 15^e Luxembourg's presence at the International Village, Xavier Bettel and Guy Daleiden welcomed the heir couple as well as numerous professionals and representatives of the 21 companies registered under the Film Fund umbrella. The Minister stressed that the film market was an essential showcase for Luxembourg's creativity and know-how: "The audiovisual sector is doing well and I am willing to continue to help it evolve, in particular by adapting the legislative framework of the fund's support mechanism so that it can fully meet the current and future needs of the profession.

The Prime Minister and Their Royal Highnesses visited the International Film Market, which this year attracted more than 12,000 participants and nearly 4,000 films and projects. The Luxembourg delegation visited the stands of Luxembourg's main co-producing countries, Belgium, Germany, Quebec and Ireland, as well as the NEXT pavilion, the sector dedicated to Virtual Reality.

The Fund officially launched the initiative at a press conference held in the Luxembourg pavilion. Virtelio Award 2017an international writing competition for interactive 360° films initiated by Luxembourg start-up realab (Fred Baus) in partnership with Julie Gayet, mk2 and the Paris Courts Devant Festival. The selected script will be co-produced with a Luxembourg company using the VR creation software developed by realab. "This innovative project represents the perfect symbiosis between artistic creation and new technologies, and is one of many new initiatives that the Fund is putting in place to keep pace with the latest technological developments," commented Guy Daleiden.

The day ended with the traditional Luxembourg reception, to which the Fund's main partners and audiovisual professionals were invited.