As the official digital cinema partner of the Cannes Film Festival, XDC is providing all of the necessary equipment and technical support to more than 16 auditoriums with over 60 digital screenings including the parallel sections during the May competition.
More specifically, seven 2K DLP Cinema� projectors1 will be installed into the following auditoriums: Lumière (2 projectors in order to perform 3D projections), Debussy, Bazin, Buñuel (also equipped for 3D projections), 60th Anniversary Theatre and the Beach Cinema.
For the Cannes Film Market, one 2K DLP Cinema� projector will be installed into the Bory auditorium whereas Gray d’Albion and Palais will be equipped with seven full HD DLP Standard projectors. In addition, one 2K DLP Cinema� projector will be placed inside Espace Miramar for Critics’ Week.
“Last year, XDC collaborated with the French CST to operate the digital cinema equipment for all the digital movies presented during the Festival,” said Bernard Collard, General Manager of XDC International. “This year, XDC assures that the Festival will be efficiently deployed by the most advanced digital cinema technologies, i.e. 2K DCI 2 compliant systems including JPEG2000 compression format and 3D projections.”
XDC will rely on two expert manufacturers which will deliver their state of the art products. First, XDC has selected Christie as their exclusive supplier of digital cinema projectors for the Festival. “As the leading manufacturer Digital Cinema projection technology, Christie is deeply committed to helping movie-makers around the world bring their vision to the screen and show the highest possible image quality” said Dale Miller, Vice-President of Christie EMEA. “Cannes is probably the most recognized film festival in the world and a major cultural influence in cinema. We consider it a privilege that our digital cinema projectors can be used here to help audiences appreciate the work of so many artists, technicians and experts of their craft.”
Secondly, Doremi has been selected by XDC as the exclusive supplier for the JPEG2000 digital cinema servers. Patrick Zucchetta, General Manager of Doremi Europe, said: “We are very proud to have been selected by XDC, for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, as exclusive supplier of the JPEG2000 encoding stations and play-back servers. This demonstrates once more the technological leadership of our D-Cinema solutions.”
EVS Broacast Equipment, the world leader in instant tapeless technology and a significant shareholder of XDC, has been a partner of the TV Cannes Festival since last year. Moreover, XDC has selected VPS, leading company for the installation of daylight video walls, the red carpet giant video wall. Together with their high expertise in the most advanced digital technologies, both XDC and EVS will offer the opportunity to thousands of movie-goers and millions of TV viewers to join the stars at this red carpet event.
“Producers, filmmakers and distributors are now convinced of the advantages to screen their movie digitally. There will be a higher number of films to be digitally processed and quality controlled by the XDC Digital Content Lab compared to last year.” said Michael Gillessen, Content Operations Manager of XDC Digital Content Lab.
As Official Partner, XDC charges the producer, filmmaker or distributor a flat fee amount which includes conformation of the source material, encoding, encryption and quality controls. The digital print is generated at XDC Digital Content Lab where an encrypted backup is kept in case of digital release. The print is recycled after the Film Festival.
“Thanks to digital cinema, all members of the production and delivery chain have the opportunity to get their stories to screen the way they intended. More and more movies are shooted and post-processed digitally. Then, digital screening helps avoid expensive operations to convert to 35mm, which is particularly crucial for some independent films with limited budgets.” says Alain Remond, General Manager of XDC France. “Hence, XDC offers the motion picture community (major studios as well as small producers) the opportunity to enjoy, during Cannes Festival, the benefits of the world’s optimal screening conditions.”
The provisional list of the motion pictures to be screened digitally is as follows:
- Official Competition: Zodiac, The Last 15, The Oate’s Valor
- Out of Competition: Ocean’s Thirteen
- Midnight Screenings: U2 3D
- Special Screenings: 11th Hour, The War, He Fengming, … The 60th Anniversary film: - To Each His Own Cinema
- Cannes Classics: Maurice Pialat - L’amour existe, Brando, Lindsay Anderson - Never Apologize, Bound by Chastity Rules, Suspiria, Man of Cinema - Pierre Rissient, Donne moi tes yeux, Hondo, Rio Bravo, Hamlet, Henry V, Richard III, …
Critics’ Week: Heroes, El Asaltante, …
- Film Market: Elvis and Annabelle, Night Train, The Women of Chiapias, Scar, …
- Director’s Fortnight: Cruising, Un autre homme, Zoo, …
“XDC is very proud to be part of this 60th Festival, an optimal competition that will showcase the best of the digital cinema industry. This exciting commitment gives XDC the opportunity to exemplify themselves as a deploying entity aiming at a large-scale digital cinema roll-out,” confirmed Bernard Collard. “As the leading digital cinema company in Europe, the pan-European roll-out target for XDC is 8,000 digital screens within the next 5 years.”
PS: XDC will hold a Press Conference in Cannes on Friday, May 18th at 10:30 AM on the CST Booth (Pantiero) with the presence of Pierre William Glenn, CST President and Technical Director of the Cannes Film Festival, Bernard Collard, General Manager of XDC International, and Alain Remond, General Manager of XDC France. Breakfast will be offered.
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