Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

UNICA Congress in 2013, for its seventy-fifth edition, will allow us to return to Austria and I would first like to greet our Austrian friends, who a few months ago took up the challenge of organizing the annual conference originally scheduled for South Korea. Vienna in 1938 and 1962 ... 1976 Baden bei Wien, Graz 1987 and Zillertal 1998 ... it has been a few years since we visited the Austrian federation, one of the five founders of the UNICA, and we do so again with great pleasure.

During the past year, the relationship between UNICA and UNESCO was marked by the appearance on screen at UNICA in Russe, of Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. It was the first time in the mutual history of IFTC and UNICA, since the founding of IFTC in 1958, that a Director General of UNESCO has directly addressed the UNICA Congress and it was a great honor for UNICA. The good wishes sent to our Congress, reflecting the interest of UNESCO in our organization and what it represents in the world of cinema, have been fulfilled since the conference in Russe, which will remain as a great Congress in our annals.

In 2012 during the UNICA contest in Russe, the International Prize of IFTC - UNESCO “Delmiro de CARALT” was awarded to the French film Cette obscure tentation, by Renaud Ducoing. Like every year, this prize is made available to the jury to award a work reflecting the values of tolerance and peace brought by UNESCO. A Fellini medal will be again available to the jury for the award of an International Award IFTC - UNESCO in 2013.

Regarding the International prize, the project to bring together in a "DVD collection" all winning movies from recent years is taking shape with the help of  Thomas Kräuchi, gathering movies from the UNICA library, Pierre Michel, who performs the work of copying and making the Master (from videotapes in all formats) and Georges Dupont, who links with UNESCO and designed the project with me.

This DVD, which IFTC plans to offer to all delegations at UNESCO's General Conference this autumn, reflects the strength and diversity of the winning entries. It will be a unique opportunity to enhance UNICA and IFTC. We of course also expected to offer this compilation to all member federations of UNICA and all the Friends of UNICA.

Meanwhile, I'll meet you in Fieberbrunn, where I am looking forward to be able to communicate verbally additional information to you on the news IFTC, I wish you a great summer and send you all my love,

Serge Michel
Representative of UNICA with the IFTC
Vice - President of IFTC

[The portrait of Irina Bokova is by Rama.]