‘Rose is the Future’ was the final act of this year’s Ma Vie en Rose spring programme by Monte-Carlo SBM, a grand closing dinner featuring the futuristic sounds of celebrated composer Thomas Roussel, the cuisine of two Michelin star Chef Marcel Ravin, and the romantic pool-side setting of the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort.
Since early March, the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) has been entertaining residents and visitors of the Principality with its unique Ma Vie en Rose programme, a colourful celebration of spring in Monaco. From the floral spinning installations created by Eva Dmitrenko and Céline Pagès and the sweet-smelling floral selfie frame in the atrium of the Casino, to the Sunday Rose Brunches available at the Blue Bay, the vibrancy and joyfulness of spring has been in full bloom.
On Saturday night, Monte-Carlo SBM took it to another level, inviting guests to board a spaceship towards the future, with sparkling rosé around the lagoon followed by a romantic dinner in the atrium.
Rose is the Future event, photo by Monaco Life
At tables circling the Monte-Carlo Bay pool, guests were treated to a gastronomic menu designed by two Michelin star Chef Marcel Ravin, a “journey to the end of desire” featuring meteorite bowls and a giant chocolate Saturn.
Harpist Naomi Greene joined an orchestra in performing pieces by celebrated composer Thomas Roussel, the futuristic sound of a Cristal Bachet serving as a highlight of the evening.
Spectacular performance by Harpist Naomi Greene and the orchestra, photo by Monaco life
Monte-Carlo SBM CEO Jean-Luc Biamonti thanked guests for taking part in the evening, reminding them of SBM’s commitment to Joie de Vivre, but also to the plight of the Ukrainians through the sale of around 100 art installation spinning wheels for the benefit of the victims of war.
It was a spectacular end to another unique programme of events organised annually by SBM as part of its ‘Great Art of Living’ philosophy, delivering one-of-a-kind experiences at the company’s hotels, spas and restaurants, and maintaining the legend that is Monaco.
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While My Yacht Group is primed to ride the swelling wave of F1 popularity across the Atlantic, the Principality-based company will celebrate 15 years at the Monaco GP. Co-founder Nicholas Frankl shares with us his plans for the busy 2022 racing calendar.
Glamour and motorsport tend to go hand-in-hand, especially Formula 1. Accustomed to playing a nexus role and uniting these elements in Monaco each year, My Yacht Group is setting its lofty gaze further afield this year as they prepare for the first Miami Grand Prix.
As Co-Founder Nicholas Frankl told Monaco Life, “You want to be on a superyacht, that’s the special magic of the harbour of Monte-Carlo.” Now, they’re taking that “magic” to Florida as the sporting world, as well as the yachting and hospitality communities, prepare for the latest addition to an ever-expanding F1 calendar.
The race, which takes place on 8th May, will do so in one of the least glamorous settings – a car park. This led then Race Director Michael Masi to say in November that “it’s far from a race in a car park,” and that it will be “something unique.”
The original plan for the Miami circuit was for it to run around Biscayne Boulevard and downtown Miami. That plan was ultimately foiled, but is one that, according to automotive writer Frankl, might have gone through if it were proposed today. “At the time, Miami and Miami locals didn’t really know a lot about Formula 1,” he began.
“I have a suspicion that the mayor, who is pro-business and pro-Miami, and governor Ron DeSantis would have made it happen. Also, locally, I suspect that there would be a much higher level of support, because now thanks to Netflix and their documentary series ‘Drive to Survive’, it’s the biggest growth sport in America today.”
The race in Miami has been sold out for weeks. Offering a different kind of experience, and a VIP one at that, will be My Yacht Group, who are primed to ride the swelling wave of F1 popularity across the Atlantic.
Frankl, who co founded My Yacht Group with his sister Annabelle, detailed their upcoming super yacht party in the ‘Sunshine State’: “We are very well known for hosting sophisticated, fun and elegant super yacht parties, always charity related and charity themed, and so that is exactly what we’re doing on a special boat called Gene Chaser, a 55m research vessel.”
“They have labs on-board, as well testing facilities and a mobile MRI machine, so it’s very much a technical showcase. We are hosting a business networking and investor reception for a curated guest list of only 100 people, representing around $250bn of net worth,” says Frankl. “We will then turn it into a My Yacht Club, which is the pop-up nightlife experience we’ve successfully hosted at the Austin GP since 2012. It’s a combination of a charity and investor reception, then a full-on party, DJ, bottle service, VIP event… We have partnered with world-famous celebrity chef Todd English, who will be personally catering on-board for our guests.”
Frankl also revealed that they will be running an event at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in November 2023, a race that was announced back in March and will be the third US GP on the calendar. Frankl, however, isn’t worried about F1 saturating the American market. “I think the US can easily absorb three races,” he says.
15 years of Monte-Carlo glamour
Heading back to more familiar shores, just as they have been for the last 15 years, My Yacht Group will once again be hosting a full track side super yacht hospitality weekend and their popular Friday night party during this May’s Monaco Grand Prix.
After last year’s more muted event, which involved two private astronaut receptions, My Yacht Group returns to normality in style. In what Frankl describes as a “huge charity weekend”, guests will board the DB9 yacht, acquired in the auction at the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation gala back in September. “All the proceeds from that auction item, which is several hundred thousand euros, went to the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and we are very proud to be promoting and supporting the PA2F once again throughout the weekend,” said Frankl.
My Yacht Group has just released three on-board luxury cabins for “the ultimate experience”. Guests will be able to stay in Port Hercules during the Grand Prix weekend, trackside, as well as mingle with VIP guests.
“We will have commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, a five-time world-record holding, US hall-of-fame astronaut who has just arrived back from the International Space Station (ISS). He is commander of the first all-private mission to the ISS with Axiom Space, a company that I and several other Monaco residents invested in.”
Frankl says it would be great to help send a Monegasque to space. “We would love to take the first Monaco astronaut to the ISS. It would be incredible to see a member of the Princely family, or a Monegasque citizen, spend 10 days aboard, conducting medical and scientific research for humanity.”
Commander Lopez-Alegria will be attending both the Miami and Monaco VIP events, as well as representatives from Vita Inclinata, a manufacturer that has designed a “life-saving autonomous power system” to stabilize cradles on helicopters and cranes. The company recently delivered $500,000 worth of their equipment to Ukraine, and trained Ukrainian medevac crews how to use it during the ongoing war. They will exhibit their technology on the superyacht crane in Monaco over the GP weekend. “That’s the first time it will be demonstrated in this way,” revealed Frankl.
The month of May is coming in like a lion at the Grimaldi Forum, when a series of high-profile concerts and business events are on the agenda.
The month of May is always a sort of ramp up to the busy summer season in Monaco. It’s the month of Grand Prix races and the Cannes Film Festival, to be sure, but there are also several big events being hosted at the Grimaldi Forum to get people out of their winter caves and back into the world.
First off is a concert by Christophe Mae on 7th May to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the release of his debut album Mon Paradis, which launched him to stardom.
Then on 11th and 12th May, the IM Power Congress comes to the Forum, an investment management event committed to empowering change through networking and talks. The event organisers say, “At IM|Power we believe the future is digital, the future is inclusive and the future has to be sustainable. Our mission is to connect the entire breadth of the investment management industry to create a profitable and purposeful industry that will remain relevant far into the future.”
Also on the 12th is Lass, an electro, house, ragga, afropop sensation who is coming to perform his celestial melodies as part of the free Thursday Live Sessions.
RM Sotheby’s is hosting an auction on 14th May featuring hypercars and historics all under one roof, giving car lovers another reason to come to the Principality.
Next up is Ready for IT!, a one-to-one digital meeting dedicated to digital transitions and security. The third edition of this popular event offers access to companies on the cutting edge of the digital world.
Completely switching gears, on 19th May, the legendary Iggy Pop arrives at the Forum. Known as the godfather of American punk rock, the 74-year-old is still on the road delighting audiences, only this time with a new jazzy sound.
The month ends with the Monaco Streaming Film Festival from 31st May to 3rd June. The second edition of this summit for the global streaming industry welcomes both virtual and in-person guests to enjoy premieres, acquire and distribute new content, meet financiers and see the latest in media tech.
After launching during Covid, the Monaco Streaming Film Festival is back even stronger this Spring, with a heavy focus on powerful women and a goal of advancing the video-on-demand industry. Here is what we know so far.
After five years contemplating the idea of developing a streaming event in Monaco, Tony Davis gathered a team together and put the wheels in motion for the world’s first video-on-demand festival, the Monaco Streaming Film Festival, in 2021.
“There was no festival or event specifically focussed on viewing-on-demand, or streaming, and there was, in fact, a level of hostility towards streaming platforms from the film and theatrically-oriented industries,” Tony Davis tells Monaco Life. “So, we decided to create a platform for the industry to understand itself better, to communicate more easily, to network, and identify relationships and opportunities.”
Despite all the drawbacks of hosting an inaugural festival in the middle of a global pandemic, including last-minute cancellations and health restrictions, the Monaco Streaming Film Festival (MSFF) last year made headlines across the world and attracted some big names in the field.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the demand and subscriber growth in streaming video services massively. Disney+, for example, launched in November 2019 and reached its goal of 60 million subscribers globally by 2024 four years ahead of schedule.
But, the video-on-demand industry is still very much in its infancy.
So, over the course of four days, from 31st May to 3rd June at the Grimaldi Forum, the Monaco Streaming Film Festival (MSFF) will bring together industry professionals, content creators, investors, and the general public for a series of film premiers, conferences, cocktail and networking events, Q&As, screenings, and a gala.
It is a jam-packed schedule that will see the showcasing of 100 films in just three days, including 80 shorts and 20 features.
Monaco Life can reveal that among the highlights is the premier screening of a film produced by Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn’s son.
The festival will also welcome keynote speaker Cherie Blair, wife of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who is a renowned barrister and advocate for equal rights and female empowerment. She recently made her first foray into film-making, serving as executive producer on the drama The Rock Pile. The film tells the story of Time magazine correspondent Bob Hastings who, while on assignment in Jerusalem, uncovers a story of three young boys of different faiths who are brought together through football.
“There is going to be a very strong theme of powerful female leaders,” says Davis, adding that the festival is representative of a contemporary industry. “The Streaming Festival is a modern festival. We don’t pay attention to the history of film, we are about the video-on-demand and streaming industry, and it is very important to us that we are a completely inclusive event, that we are open to all people, be they a film maker like James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss etc.), recently out of film school, or not from film school at all… there is a place for them to come along to the festival, to enjoy and learn.”
Unlike the highly exclusive Cannes Film Festival, which ends just two days prior, the MSFF encourages the public to attend conferences, and watch film premiers and screenings. Organisers are even going so far as to offer free popcorn and coffee as a special treat.
Meanwhile, on International Parent’s Day, Wednesday 1st June, the festival is teaming up with local group Entreparents to offer free back-to-back screenings of children’s films. Stay tuned for some big-name announcements here soon.
For industry professionals, or those wishing to enter the industry, the festival will host film and production distribution organisations from all over the world, providing a platform for the guidance and support of producers and distributors as they navigate their way in this new frontier.
Finance through NFTs is also a hot topic.
The Streaming Film Festival 2022
The event will culminate in the Monaco Streaming Film Festival Awards on Friday 3rd June, during which 12 individuals and organisations will be rewarded for their successes at a black-tie event.
Last year’s winners include ‘Lord of the Danse’ star Michael Flatley for Best Actor in his film Blackbird, ‘Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult’ for Best Documentary Series, and Jon Favreau, creator of the Star Wars Disney+ original series The Mandalorian, for the Reg Grundy Innovation Award.
“We decided that the award would recognise innovation because Reg Grundy changed television,” says Jo Cullen-Cronshaw, CEO of RG Capital and Director of the MSFF.
Reg Grundy is best known for the Australian television productions Prisoner, Neighbours and Sons and Daughters, as well as game shows Match Game and Wheel of Fortune.
“He wasn’t just a creator of programming, he created formatting. Copyrighting only existed in books etc. at the time, not in television, so how it all works today is down to Reg Grundy.”
The MSFF Reg Grundy Innovation Award is “specifically for game changers”, says Cullen-Cronshaw, “somebody who has changed the direction of film in all its genres. We admit, Jon Favreau will be a big name to follow.”
There have been 3,000 films submitted from around 112 countries for this award alone.
RG Capital is the main backer of the Monaco Streaming Film Festival, coming on board during a challenging inauguration. But an exciting line-up for 2022 has organisers confident that the event will attract more corporate sponsorship going forward.
They also expect to significantly grow on last year’s figure of over 100,000 people in virtual participation, 80% of which was in the US alone.
“The conferences will go out live again, so anyone in the world can tune in and participate,” says Davis. “This year, we are also packaging the films and series that we are screening for a number of global streaming platforms to share with their audiences. It will give producers an opportunity to be seen by a massive global audience to not only enjoy their work, but who may also help them develop and trigger their careers.”
The digital platform
While the MSFF will end after three and a half days, its mandate will continue through a new digital platform that will provide anyone around the world with ongoing access and networking opportunities in the world of streaming.
“The Grundy Creator Platform, which will go live the day the Monaco Streaming Festival ends, can be used for a number of reasons – to search for project financing, to seek distribution, to learn more from key industry professionals,” reveals Davis. “It is a financing, distributing and learning tool that they can come into anytime they wish.”
It will also be a platform on which people can upload their creations, a bit like the Tinder of streaming.
“People can place their projects on the platform and potential financiers will use our algorithms to identify the type of project they want to invest in,” explains Davis. “They can then look in to it further and interact with the producers, and hopefully get involved by funding the production of the project.”
Monaco Life is proud to be a media sponsor of the MSFF. Tickets are now available online at http://www.mcsff.com.
Saturday night’s fixture against Lyon will not only be a meeting of two Ligue 1 giants, but recognition of the incredible work done by the Monaco Scientific Centre (CSM) and the Flavien Foundation.
To commemorate World Cancer Day, which takes place on 4th February, AS Monaco will highlight the CSM and the Flavien Foundation’s commitment in the fight against paediatric cancer on the 5th through auctions, jersey presentations and exclusive experiences.
Pre-match, AS Monaco Vice-President Oleg Petrov will offer a jersey to the organisations as a symbol of the club’s support.
The club will also stage a ‘My Wish’ experience, whereby two children, supported by the Flavien Foundation, will have the unique experience of watching the match from backstage. Their families, as well as other members of the Flavien Foundation, will be invited to attend the game.
Completing the club’s tribute is an auction of the jerseys worn by Monaco players on the night. The auction will begin on Sunday 6th on the MatchWornShirt platform and continue until 13th February, with the profits being shared 50/50 between the two organisations.
The CSM and the Flavien Foundation have been collaborating since 2015 in order to improve knowledge and develop potential therapies for paediatric cancer.
The announcement comes just days after the Principality hosted the Biennial Cancer Conference at the Grimaldi Forum, which was organised by the CSM and took place under the patronage of Prince Albert II.
AS Monaco’s fixture against Lorient next weekend will also commemorate the work done by local associations who work with children with cancer. World Child Cancer Day is on 15th February, with Monaco playing just two days before. The club will therefore invite fans and volunteers from local associations to enjoy the match at the Stade Louis II.
A new polar symposium will be held in February bringing together top scientists to talk about the effects of climate change on the polar regions and how those effects are changing the Earth as a whole.
The polar regions of the planet have been areas of concern for climatologists for years. In October 2021, scientists estimated that nearly 75% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared, while last summer, the Arctic ice area was the smallest it has been for a millennia. The Antarctic has a rosier picture, showing a stabilisation of ice thickness and area, but temperature rises there are making for an uncertain future.
In response to this situation, which of late has been overshadowed by the global pandemic, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, along with the Scientific Committee on Arctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), have joined with the Oceanographic Institute, the Prince Albert I Foundation and the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to create The Cold is Getting Hot!, a hybrid in-person and online symposium being held 24th and 25th February.
Leading scientific figures will discuss how fast and in what ways the polar region’s changes are affecting the Earth’s climate and living systems, as well as how it is a concern for the population-at-large.
The two-day event will feature talks from experts and key partners about the management, policies and actions being taken at international and regional levels and will spotlight how science’s role remains of the utmost importance.
In all, there will be four sessions. The scheduled talks are ‘Understanding changes in the poles’, ‘Contribution of polar changes to the global climate’, ‘Effects of polar changes upon global human societies and economies’, and ‘Management responses in the face of uncertainties’.
The Cold is Getting Hot! will take place at the Oceanographic Museum on 24th February from 9am to 16:30pm, and on the 25th from 8:30am to 4pm. A conference website will soon be launched for more information. Registration for the virtual event is not required, but for in-person spaces, email acarter@fpa2.org to book.
Photo by Danielle Barnes on Unsplash
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