“French film is not a genre”: American French Film Festival heads on 29th edition’s diverse line-up

The 29th edition of American French Film Festival (TAFF, October 28–November 3) brings a varied line-up of 42 features, six documentaries, nine series and 13 shorts including a number of Cannes premieres and several high-profile titles looking for US distribution.

Opening the event is the Los Angeles premiere of Rebecca Zlotowski’s Cannes selection A Private Life, which Sony Pictures Classics holds for North America and Latin America, starring Jodie Foster as a psychoanalyst investigating a suspicious death. Richard Linklater’s Centrepiece Gala Nouvelle Vague (at Netflix) centres on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s legendary crime caper Breathless (A Bout De Souffle) and will be accompanied by a special screening of the 1960 original. The closing night film is Guru, a psychological thriller starring Pierre Niney as a charismatic yet toxic life coach.

Studiocanal handles sales on Guru and swoops into the festival with a trio of Cannes titles – Cedric Klapisch’s time-jumping family comedy-drama Colors Of Time, Alex Lutz’s social drama and love story Connemara, and Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s Summer Beats – as well as Cedric Jimenez’s near-future Paris-set thriller Dog 51 fresh from Venice and Toronto. Yann Gozlan will be in town to present his AI-themed thriller The Residence, which premiered in Cannes and is sold by Gaumont.

“French film is not a genre,” the festival’s artistic director François Truffart tells Screen on the day the event announced its full line-up. “And there is not just one type of audience: there are tiny-budget arthouse titles and bigger mainstream movies, but most French films lie somewhere in between that.

Truffart says the festival has always aimed to strike a balance between the two, adding: “We started this strategy and now even festivals like Cannes have followed suite in selecting more ‘commercial’ titles.”

“People still believe that French films are made for people with masters degrees”

Festival deputy director Anouchka van Riel adds: “People still believe that French films are made for people with masters degrees, so we continue to try to fight against this stereotype. Distributors count on us to help promote this type of [commercial] film, which is tougher from a marketing perspective than intellectual, smaller arthouse films in the US.”

TAFF selections soon heading to US screens include Jafar Panahi’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner and French Oscar submission It Was Just An Accident (Neon), Martin Bourboulon’s 13 Days 13 Nights (Samuel Goldwyn Films), Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life (Sony Pictures Classics), Oliver Laxe and Santiago Fillol’s Spanish Oscar submission Sirât (Neon), François Ozon’s The Stranger (Music Box Films), and Ken Scott’s French box office hit Once Upon My Mother (Menemsha).

Several selections are still available for US distributors. They include Valerie Donzelli’s Venice best screenplay winner At Work (sold by Kinology), and a slew of titles from Cannes such as Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo’s Directors’ Fortnight opener Enzo (mk2); Thierry Klifa’s Bettencourt family story The Richest Woman In The World (Playtime) starring Isabelle Huppert; Louise Hemon’s The Girl In the Snow (Kinology); Josephine Japy’s The Wonderers (Pulsar Content) starring Melanie Laurent; Anna Cazenave’s Love Me Tender (Be For Films); Antony Cordier’s The Party’s Over (France tv distribution); and Martin Jouvat’s Baise-en-Ville (Ecce Films).

Another selection from Cannes, Pauline Loques’ Nino (The Party), earned lead actor Theodore Pellerin the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award on the Croisette and just won the Prix D’Ornano-Valenti for best first French feature at Deauville American Film Festival in September.

Also heading to Los Angeles are Leonor Seraille’s Berlin premiere Ari (Be For Films), Claire Denis’ The Fence (Goodfellas) that premiered at TIFF, and Marie-Elsa Squaldo’s Venice premiere Silent Rebellion (Salaud Morisset). French absurdist auteur Quentin Dupieux’s The Piano Accident (Lucky Number) starring Adele Exarchopoulos, Helene Merlin’s coming-of-age drama Cassandre (Bac Films), and Enya Baroux’s Bon Voyage Marie (Ginger & Fed) round out the eclectic features line-up.

TAFF’s six documentaries in competition are Guillaume Ribot’s All I Had Was Nothingness about Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah; Alain Berliner’s Bardot; Anissa Bonnefont’s La Scala: The Force Of Destiny set at the Milan opera; Romane Bohringer’s Tell Her That I Love Her; Fatma and Hassona and Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk; and Linda Bendali’s Drugged And Abused: No More Shame about the Gisèle Pelicot trial.

“It is very important for us to show films that are breaking the cliché of Emily In Paris,” explains van Riel, citing The Little Sister starring Cannes best actress prize-winner Nadia Mellitti as a queer Muslim woman finding her way; Love Me Tender starring Vicky Krieps, which van Riel says “breaks the traditional codes of a bourgeois family”; and Enzo. She describes the films as “fish-out-of-water stories about France, far from your typical cliché [about] falling in love in Paris”, adding: “It’s important to show French stories that are multilayered, complicated – not just the Eiffel Tower.”

This year in particular, van Riel observes “a major trend” in crossover films. “How often is a French-directed opener (A Private Life) starring a fluent French-speaking American actor paired with an American-directed centrepiece film (Nouvelle Vague) with a fully French cast and crew?”

Transatlantic synergy

Van Riel continues: “This is what the festival stands for: it is peak cultural exchange and transatlantic synergy. Navigating between both industries is what we do best, so putting these crossover films front and centre was important for us. The festival was designed to create bridges between American cinema and French cinema and these films epitomise that.”

Truffart adds that closing night film Guru, shot between Paris and Las Vegas, rounds out the transatlantic trifecta since “the subject is the impact of American culture on French culture, about this world of life coaching”.

Series standouts from notable feature directors include Jean-Stephane Bron and Alice Winocour’s political drama The Deal for Arte that premiered in Series Mania and stars Veerle Baetens; HBO Max’s The Seduction from Jessica Palud starring Anamaria Vartolomei, Diane Kruger and Lucas Bravo; and Gaumont’s The Hunt from Cedric Anger for Apple TV+ starring Benoit Magimel and Melanie Laurent.

Other highlights include Second World War-set The Sentinels from Canal+; US series The Lost Station Girls from Disney+ France/ Hulu starring Camille Razat and Hugo Becker; and TF1’s Log Out with Sofia Essaidi and Alexis Michalik.

TAFF will once again organise panels, discussions and networking industry events running parallel to the festival. American French Film Festival is organised by Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership between Directors Guild Of America, Sacem (France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music), Writers Guild Of America, and Motion Picture Association.

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