20th edition, which runs Nov 8-29, to also honour Yves Montand and Georges Méliès.

Celebrating its 20th birthday this year, the French Film Festival UK has announced some early programme entries.

This year will see a special focus on Olivier Assayas [pictured] with the festival expecting to screen his new film Something In The Air, while Belgian director Chantal Akerman has confirmed her appearance for workshops, screenings and seminars in partnership with Wallonie–Bruxelles and the University of Edinburgh.

Among the screenings so far announced are A Trip To The Moon - which showed at last year’s Cannes - set to new music by Air, and two decades after his death, Yves Montand will be remembered with a screening Le Sauvage in a restored copy, which the festival is hopeful that its director Jean-Paul Rappeneau will present.

The festival’s co-founder and director Richard Mowe commented: “We have many more exciting plans waiting in the wings and which will be unveiled in the months ahead. Twenty years is a significant milestone for the festival and we look forward to a magnifique programme and to welcoming French guests, both familiar and new. How prescient that with the soaring success of The Artist we welcomed Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicus and Bérénice Bejo only a couple of editions ago.”

Sponsors for the French Film Festival include UK Creative Scotland, Institut français, Alliance francaise, the French Embassy, Total, TV5 and many other funders and sponsors.

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