Grants & Programs

SOUNDS OF NEW YORK is a new program initiated by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, as part of "Villa Albertine", which aims to promote French podcasters and to explore what is at stake in this emerging industry in NYC. 8 French podcasters will take part in a one-week learning expedition to New York, the podcasting capital, to meet key industry players and a vibrant community of independent studios and creators.    

We are thrilled to introduce our new French Cinema program on Campus: ALBERTINE CINEMATHEQUE. ALBERTINE CINEMATHEQUE is a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, which aims to present recently released high profile independent French films on US campuses. By introducing college students to French films through their varied forms, our program is nurturing an enduring love for a very diverse and evolving cinema.

Games for Good is a program initiated by the cultural and scientific services of the French Embassies in the United States and in Canada to address training, innovation and inclusion challenges in the video game industry.

The Book Department at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York offers financial support to American institutions wishing to host French authors for readings, signings, and symposia. Please visit us on villa-albertine.org for more information

OUI DESIGN, an initiative of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the FACE Foundation, fosters creative exchange in design between France and the US. Through programs that encourage transatlantic collaboration withdesigners, artists, and manufacturers, OUI DESIGN aims to enrich the sector by facilitating the transmission of knowledge and techniques and strengthening economic ties between the design industries on both sides of the Atlantic. It also brings French creatives to the United States to exhibit their work and engage with industry pro-fessionals and the public at large.

FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance fosters dialogue, strengthens professional relationships, and sparks creative artistry through cultural exchanges by introducing choreographers and performers whose works had never or rarely been seen in the partner country.

The Book Department at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy works to promote French and Francophone literature and to encourage English translations of French works. We oversee three grant programs to help publishers and translators with acquisition of rights cost and translation cost. Please visit us on villa-albertine.org for more information

Films on the Lake is a free outdoor French film festival produced annually in Chicago parks by the Cultural Services at the French Embassy in Chicago as part of the Chicago Park District's Movies in the Parks.

Marianne Midwest Series is a series of web debates on contemporary topics produced annually by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago in partnership with the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago and the Alliance Française de Chicago to bring together American and French points of view, and to reach satellites locations. The programs take place in Chicago but are broadcast via webcast to other locations throughout the Midwest.

Curated by independent curator Guillaume Désanges and organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago in partnership with many cultural institutions, Méthode Room is an international residency program that fosters French-American collaborations through cultural and civic engagement in the South Side of Chicago.

In 2004, FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy created two music programs encouraging collaborations between French and American artists and ensembles in the field of jazz and contemporary music: the French-American Jazz Exchange and the Contemporary Music Fund, later renamed the New Music Fund. Since 2019, the Jazz & New Music program – a merger of the two previous programs – continues to support fruitful collaborations in the following ways:  supporting new French-American commissions and creations; supporting United States based residencies for French composers and musicians; supporting tours in the United States by French ensembles and musicians. 

French Immersion is a program initiated by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. and developed to support emerging and innovative French creators.

Designed as a yearlong artistic journey, Kids Trail offers children and adults the opportunity to explore French arts and culture through a variety of disciplines: cinema, theater, design, dance, visual arts, philosophy, music and literature.

YOUNG FRENCH CINEMA is a program of UniFrance films, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, which aims to bring French films with no US distribution to art house cinemas, film societies, the Alliance Française network, and American universities.

The Tournées Festival aims to bring contemporary French cinema to American college and university campuses. The program distributes close to $200,000 in grants annually to encourage schools to begin their own self-sustaining French film festivals. The Tournées Festival has partnered with more than 600 universities, making it possible for more than 500,000 students to discover French-language films.

Best of French Short Films, a program launched by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US in 2016, offers non-commercial theaters a selection of short films that were presented at the most recent International Short Film Festival - Clermont-Ferrand. 

The Centre national du livre (CNL) offers grants to foreign translators who wish to spend time in France to complete a translation project of a French work into their own language.

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and ARTE, the European cultural TV channel, are thrilled to offer ARTE Docs USA, a list of documentaries, for American Universities, non profit institutions, schools and Alliances françaises.

FACE Contemporary Theater, a French-American grant program, is dedicated to fostering innovative artistic collaborations in the field of theater and to contributing to the dynamism of intercultural dialogue and exchange between France and the U.S.

Étant donnés Contemporary Art aims to strengthen ties between France and the U.S. in the field of contemporary art by fostering active collaboration and encouraging long-lasting partnerships between French visual artists, curators and collectives and American curators and cultural institutions. The fund supports the discovery of emerging talents, while also sustaining interest in established artists. Furthermore, it has been instrumental in creating a network of curators from France and the U.S. Since its inception, Étant donnés has developed an international reputation by allocating over $3 million to fund more than 300 projects and 16 curators.

For almost thirty years, the "Meet" — Maison des Écrivains Étrangers et des Traducteurs (the Foreign Writers and Translators House) — has welcomed writers and translators from all over the world. The resident is allocated a weekly grant and accommodated in an emblematic high-rise overlooking the docks and the shipyards of Saint Nazaire Harbour, on the Loire River estuary. The deadline for application is the end of February for a residency the following year.

Le Créative Lab North America is a intensive 15-day program for startups from the cultural and creative industries willing to expand into the US market in the next 12 to 24 months. The purpose of this immersion into the New York and Montreal landscape is to help French entrepreneurs adapt their products or services to the American consumer and define a marketing strategy for the U.S. and French Canadian market, as well as establish contacts and networks to prepare for the product launch in the United States and Québec. In 2021, Le Créative Lab North America goes online! More info here