Le Havre prepares for 32nd Unifrance Rendez-Vous
By C21 Reporters 04/09/2026
The Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre opens next week with 135 buyers from around 40 countries, first-time delegations from the UK and Mexico, and more than 400 programmes on offer from 51 French distributors.
Rendez-Vous opens with a morning of conferences
The 32nd Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre runs from September 7 to 10. It will bring together 135 buyers from some 40 countries to view more than 400 programmes spanning fiction, animation, documentary and live performance, presented by 51 French distribution companies.
Among the 135 buyers representing 85 companies, several are attending for the first time. These include Brazilian channel Canal Curta!, Brazilian multimedia group Globo, Ukrainian platform Megogo, Polish television group MWE Networks, new French channel Novo19 (Ouest-France), Canadian television group Remstar, Turkish platform Tivibu (Turk Telekom) and Korean news group YTN.
The market also welcomes back companies that have been absent for several years, among them Spain’s RTVE, Sky Italia, Saudi Arabia’s MBC/Shahid, Egypt’s United Media Services (UMS) and Ethiopia’s Kana Television. Portugal has a stronger presence than before, with public broadcaster RTP represented across fiction, animation and documentary, and telecoms group and pay TV broadcaster NOS attending for the first time.
Long-standing partners returning to the event include 3Cat/TV3 (Spain), Ceska Televize and HBO Central Europe (Czech Republic), ERT (Greece), HRT (Croatia), MHz (US), MTVA/Duna (Hungary), ORF (Austria), RTBF, RTL Belgium and VRT (Belgium), Rai and RTI/Mediaset (Italy), RSI and RTS (Switzerland), SRC-Radio Canada, SRTV (Slovakia), SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland) and ZDF (Germany).
Documentary Beasts of the Colosseum screens on Tuesday
The bulk of the delegation continues to come from Western Europe, including Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Germany, and Eastern Europe, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Poland has a particularly strong showing this year, with Canal+ Polska, Puls TV, TVN/Warner Bros. Discovery Poland and TVP all attending, reflecting the wider dynamism of that market.
Two new countries join the delegation this year: Mexico, represented by A&E Latin America, based in Mexico City, and the UK, represented by specialty channel Talking Pictures.
On the distribution side, 51 French companies will showcase more than 400 programmes in total, including around 50 exclusive titles.
A morning of conferences opens proceedings on Tuesday September 8, from 10.15am to 12pm at the Carré des Docks, introduced by Unifrance president Gilles Pélisson. The CNC will present its 2025 figures for French audiovisual exports, led by Cécile Lacoue, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée’s director of research, statistics and forecasting, from 10.25am to 10.50am. Unifrance will follow with a first-time summary of its report on French films and programmes on TV channels and SVoD platforms abroad in 2025, presented by Sarah Hemar, Unifrance’s director of audiovisual, from 10.50am to 11.15am.
Glasses raised at a gala event at Rendezvous 2025
A panel discussion titled The Evolving Audiovisual Market: How to Adapt? follows from 11.15am to 12pm, moderated by Lacoue and Hemar. Panellists are Morgann Favennec, deputy CEO of Mediatoon Distribution; Ulrich Lagriffoul, SVP of distribution, Europe and MENA, at Mediawan Rights; and Julie Tolza, director of documentaries at Seventine.
Three exclusive screenings take place at the Pathé Dock Vauban across the market. Documentary Beasts of the Colosseum (1×52′), distributed by Balanga, screens on Tuesday September 8 at 12pm. Scripted series Swapped (6×52′), distributed by France TV Distribution, screens the same day at 1pm. Scripted series The Red & the Black (4×52′), distributed by Wild Bunch Distribution, screens on Wednesday September 9 at 1pm.
Entrepreneur, producer, director, writer and composer Jeremy Zag will receive the Deadline TV Disruptor Award during Rendez-Vous, at a ceremony on September 9 at the Abbaye de Montivilliers, a former Benedictine convent founded in the seventh century.
The award, presented by Deadline to recognise daring and creative talent in international television, previously went to Noé Debré in 2024 and Fanny Herrero in 2025. Zag founded animation studio ZAG in Paris in 2009, expanding to the US in 2012, and is best known for creating Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. In 2024, ZAG partnered with Mediawan to form Miraculous Corp, where Zag remains a major shareholder and board member.
Rendez-Vous opens on the evening of Monday September 7 with a cocktail reception hosted by Édouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre and president of the Communauté urbaine Le Havre Seine Métropole, at the MuMa, the city’s museum of modern art. A guided tour of Le Havre is offered to registered participants earlier that afternoon.
Tuesday September 8 concludes with an Off Screen Party from 7pm at La Grande École, a former school converted into an event space. On Wednesday September 9, Hervé Morin, president of the Région Normandie, hosts a cocktail reception at the Abbaye de Montivilliers. Lunches on the Tuesday and Wednesday are served alongside screenings at the Pathé Docks Vauban.
This is the third consecutive year the event has been held on the Normandy coast, and the first time it has run across four days rather than five, with the market itself open for three days rather than four. By comparison, the 2025 edition brought together 150 buyers from 40 countries and 51 distribution companies, with more than 500 programmes available in its screening room.
