Haïti 2012: Dreams and Reality - pays rêvé, pays réel gathers for the first time in Chicago and Milwaukee leading personalities of the Haitian cultural scene. The presenters include six prominent, award-winning Haitian intellectuals and artists: Lyonel Trouillot, 2011 Goncourt nominated author ;  Yanick Lahens, writer ; Louis-Philippe Dalembert,  author ; Arnold Antonin, film director ; Mireille Pérodin-Jérôme, art historian  and Edouard Duval-Carrié, Miami based Haitian artist and contemporary art curator.

Suported by the Institut Français (Paris) and the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago and in partnership with the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Marquette University, the Lynden Sculpture Garden Foundation, Northwestern University, the Alliances Françaises of Chicago and Milwaukee.

French book sales, storytelling, cartoon contest, book signing from around the world for les petits et les grands.

Cinq grands témoins francophones, de Chicago et du Midwest, vous feront partager leurs points de vue sur les enjeux politiques et culturels de la Francophonie.

On the kick-off evening of the month-long Festival de la Francophonie de Chicago, come to sample delicacies from Belgium, Canada, France, Haïti, Quebec, Romania, Switzerland, and Vietnam; to enjoy cabaret music and the amazing French Jazz Trio Flon Flon et Musette and to meet other francophones .

Supported by the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago.

Jean d'Haussonville, Director General of the National Domaine of Chambord will take you on an exclusive tour of the château de Chambord, a masterpiece of the French Renaissance.

The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago presents the 15th Annual European Union Film Festival, the largest showcase in North America for the cinema of the European Union nations. As always, the festival presents a wide range of recent production, from first features by the cream of France’s new talents to the latest films by established masters.

Supported by the Institut Français and the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago.

The Cinematheque of the University of Wisconsin in Madison presents four features by French Nouvelle Vague contemporaries Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut, both of whom helped to change the face of cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Fans of French film across the US will be able to experience highlights from contemporary French cinema, as NY based Rendez-vous with French Cinema goes national, with simultaneous screening in 40 venues across the country.

The Francophone Film Festival of Kalamazoo is dedicated to provide the communities of Western Michigan University, across Michigan and the surrounding Midwestern states, an opportunity to experience the original creative cinema from the Francophone World.

The Alliance Française de Chicago will also present on March 17th, 2012 three films of the festival in partnership with the FFF of Kalamazoo.

Supported by the Institut Français

The Cleveland International Film Festival, premier film event in Ohio,  presents a full survey of contemporary international and American Independent filmmaking, with more than 150 features and 130 short subjects from approximately 60 countries including from France.

The Alliance Française in Minneapolis proudly presents Résolument animés, outstanding works of French animation and world cinema as part of its Ciné Kids film series.

Supported by the Institut Français

French composer Mark André, a household name in European contemporary music yet massively underrepresented in North America, makes his first Chicago appearance in this co-curated program by the Chicago Ensemble Dal Niente.

Supported by the Cultural Sevice at the Consulate General of France in Chicago and the Goethe-Institut Chicago

Chicago-based percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion  will perform French composer Gérard Grisey's “Le Noir de l'Étoile”, an evening-length work for 6 percussionists inspired by the radio signals emitted by dying stars on the far side of the universe in the Grainger Sky Theater at the Adler Planetarium,

6:30 p.m. pre-concert discussion with Geza Gyuk, Director of Astronomy at the Adler Planetarium

See review in the Chicago Magazine

Supported by the French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE with major support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, SACEM, Institut Français and the Florence Gould Foundation.

The acclaimed Chicago-based chamber music ensemble eighth blackbird returns to the MCA Stage to present beautiful work by composer Bruno Mantovani who is renowned in his native France, but little-known in America. Eclectic music by younger composers, Fabian Svensson (Sweden) and Americans Dan Visconti and Amy Kirsten complete the program.

Formed in 2003, the French Modigliani Quartet quickly attracted international attention by winning several international competitions and has become one of the world’s most sought-after chamber ensembles.

Since the European Union Youth Orchestra was founded in 1976, audiences around the world have been impressed with the level of mastery of Europe's top young musical talents from all 27 European Union countries under the musical direction of renowned conductor-pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. The orchestra will perform only two concerts in the Midwest at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington and at Northwestern University Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

Supported by the European Union, the 27 EU Member States, the Friends of the British Council, and the British Council.

France’s leading contemporary ballet company, Ballet Preljocaj,  performs a romantic and contemporary retelling of Snow White (Blanche Neige), based on the Grimm brothers’ original fairytale, with Preljocaj’s personal variations based on an analysis of symbolism. This lush, full-length story ballet by French choreographer, Angelin Preljocaj, features massive sets, 26 dancers, and an all-star roster of French artists and designers including the magnificent excesses of Gustav Mahler symphonies, magical sets by Thierry Leproust, and costumes by legendary fashion design Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Ballet Preljocaj will perform in only two venues in the Midwest : University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Supported by the Institut Français and the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago

To celebrate the 2012 tricentennial of the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the University of Notre Dame has partnered with Amnesty International to launch the American début of DIGNITY, a photographic exhibit on poverty and human rights first unveiled in Paris in 2010.

The Art Institute of Chicago presents the first retrospective exhibition in the United States of French artist Claude Cahun’s work.This exhibition was organized by the Jeu de Paume, Paris, and coproduced with La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona.

This exhibition brings together twelve masterpieces to look anew at the range of Monet’s output in Giverny and to consider the importance of his garden as a continuing source of reflective inspiration.

Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color presents an extraordinary exhibition of modern French masters featuring 55 paintings from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN and nearly 30 works from Speed’s collection and public and private collections throughout Kentucky.

Considered “one of the world’s greatest companies,”  the Paris Opéra Ballet makes its Chicago debut in a week-long engagement, launching the company’s 2012 North American Tour with their first American performances in more than a decade.

The full 154-member company will perform two diverse programs—Giselle, and a program of mixed repertoire to include Suite en blanc by Serge Lifar, Roland Petit’s L’Arlésienne, and Le Boléro by Maurice Béjart—accompanied by the Grant Park Orchestra in a first-ever collaboration with the Harris Theater.