Discoveries from France World Cinema

Esther, a young woman from the South of France moves to Paris at the end of the summer to look for her summer crush. She is in for an intense and romantic journey.

Strip-tease has a pleasing Paris setting and a convincing strip club atmosphere, where a roster of exotic dancers do their thing. Making the club atmosphere work is the animated Dany Saval, as a charming gossip and outspoken cheerleader for the art of the strip-tease. Berthe encourages Ariane to loosen up and enjoy what she's doing.

When Spirou, supposedly a bellhop in a Palace, meets Fantasio, reporter scupper, everything starts very hard … and rather badly!

Anticipating eviction from her retirement home after the death of her son and sole provider, rebellious septuagenarian Émilie decides to take revenge on all those who have wronged her. During her journey of initiation, she cuts to the quick to right the wrongs and is joined by Linda, a cleaning lady with whom she has forged a close bond. She, too, has nothing left to lose and decides to wage war against those who have scorned her. Soon, these two companions are hunted down by a pair of policemen.

Three sisters, played by Fanny Ardant, Greta Scacchi and Valeria Golino, struggle with their illusions, goals and desires in Margarethe von Trotta’s film adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s play.

Rita is a girl that lives on taking gangsters as lovers. But when the money stops coming, she swears revenge.

Woman flees war-torn Syria, leaving family behind. Seeking asylum in Bordeaux, she meets French lawyer who helps her rebuild life. Unexpected relationship forms between them amid her struggle to resettle.

A light French comedy of 5 segments.

Industrialist Pierre Verdier kills his mistress Jeanne Ancelin by throwing her off a train. Her husband, Ancelin, decides to take revenge on his wife's murderer, who has been acquitted by justice.

Three friends leave their village for a retirement home travelling the countryside

In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?

Drama set in the Second World War, focused on Jean Moulin, hero, martyr and symbol of the French resistance and the patriotism during the dark years of Nazi occupation.

At first sight, 10-year-old Benoît Brisefer, seems like any other little boy his age. However, Benoît is endowed with amazing force. All the bandits who cross his path learn this to their own cost. But, unfortunately, no one is perfect... As soon as he catches a cold, Benoît loses his extraordinary physical abilities. Hence he never takes off the woollen scarf wrapped around his neck. Brave and very determined, he doesn't hesitate a second to take action to defend his friends. So, when Poilonez - a well known crook - and his gang decide to focus on Mr. Dussiflard, his taxi driver friend, Benoît does all that he can to thwart his plans.

A group of French tourists goes on an organized trip to visit the American West. A dream trip from California to Las Vegas, passing through national parks and grandiose sites immortalized by the western.

Inflamed by his readings of chivalric novels, Don Quixote, a knight with a sad face, accompanied by Sancho Panza, a peasant steeped in common sense, decides to set off across the world in search of improbable adventures.

In the wake of his wife’s death, Simon tries to make a fresh start by moving with his son Camille to Dubai. In that extraordinary city, Camille manages to forget, let go, and begin a new life. But for Simon, it’s not so easy. He begins to feel an alarming presence in their home - someone quietly, patiently lurking in the shadows. Could it really be his double? Simon slowly succumbs to anxiety and thinks he is going mad. But he’s not the only one to feel threatened this way. It seems to be happening to all people in Dubai who refuse to cut off all ties to their past.

At sixty years old, two friends in financial difficulties are going to take advantage of their image in the fashion and advertising world. One is still beautiful, the other never was. But beyond the game of appearances, what does it really mean to be of retirement age today?

A gifted 11-year-old boy secretly builds an air balloon with his friend Emma, to prove to his father that everything in life is possible.

A documentary that explores what it means to be a young person in Quebec after the dissolution of the Quebec sovereignty movement.

A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship.

Back to school for Ducobu, Léonie Gratin and Latouche. But this year, a major rival for Ducobu arrives at school: TGV, the king of cheating 3.0. While the financial situation of Saint-Potache becomes disastrous, the two dunces will have to unite their creativity to win a song contest and save their school.

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had already labelled events in Gaza a genocide back in March 2024. Following her lead, this piece takes us deep into the heart of the institution’s crisis, as it struggles with its inability to stop the massacre of civilians.

Alice d'Abanville and Louis Ruinard are two extraordinary personalities. They were the most strikingly glamorous couple of the 70s. But this pair haven't seen each other in thirty years.

In 1840, a young Russian aristocrat, Dimitri Sanin, is returning home after a long tour of Europe. In Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful pastry shop girl, Gemma Rosselli, who soon starts sharing his feelings. They decide to get married and, in order to finance the wedding, Dimitri goes back to Russia to sell his family estate. Unfortunately he falls prey to a seductress, Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who pretends to be willing to buy his land to come nearer him. Now Sanin is in a fix: should he choose the pure Gemma or the evil but irresistible Maria?

Juliette is a young woman who just can't help lying. She lies to her sister, Sophie, to Sophie's fiancé Martin, and to all the men she attracts with her womanly charms. But when she falls for an older man, a 40-year old lawyer, her reputation as a liar precedes her and she cannot convince him that she really does love him…

A dramatized account of the French Resistance, this wartime film depicts how railway workers sabotaged German trains to disrupt troop movements and supply lines during the Nazi occupation. Blending documentary realism with fiction, it pays tribute to the courage and sacrifice of ordinary workers who became central to the fight for liberation.

Derrick and his deputy, Harry Klein, back from holidays, discover that french TV channel 5 is dead. They'll have to build a plan to create a new "new 5 channel". They'll be helped by Starsky & Hutch, Matt Houston, Captain Kirk or french inspector Navarro, while Superman, assisted by Number 6 and Roger Moore, will try to thwart their plan.

Marie leaves home to study the piano at the conservatory in Lyons. Through lack of money, she is obliged to share an apartment with Emma, a friend of the family who has lived alone since the death of her father. The two young women develop a strange fascination for one another, which soon develops into an intense mutual need...

October 1941. Eighteen months into France’s occupation by German troops, young Communist members of the Resistance shoot dead an officer of the German Army. In retaliation, Hitler demands the deaths of 150 Frenchmen, as 'retribution'. The targets are to be mostly young men believed to share the assassins’ political convictions. Most of these men are taken from an internment camp for opponents of the occupation; a 35-year-old French rural administrator is ordered to select the victims. Although the parish priest appeals to their conscience and moral sensibilities, both the German military and their French helpers slavishly follow their orders.

Meet Adrien! He's 35. He's stuck in a mid-life crisis. He's neurotic and hypochondriac. Tonight he's stuck in an endless family dinner and his girlfriend is not answering his texts. On top of that, his dumb brother-in-law asks him to prepare a speech for his wedding. Could it get even worse?

Axèle is a photographer, Camille is a writer. They have been awarded an arts residency at the Villa Medicis in Rome. Camille is accompanied by her husband, the famous writer Marc Landré. When a strange rivalry takes shape between them, Camille bonds with Axèle. But who is Axèle really ? A total artist, who never compromises and confuses herself with her oeuvre ? Or a ghost ? This year at the Villa Medici, where bodies and souls free themselves, no one will come out unscathed.

Sébastien, a conscientious and professional train inspector, dreams of being transferred to the South of France. To validate his transfer, he has to make one last routine run under the supervision of Madeleine, a slightly sociopathic inspector who won't let him go. That's when everything goes wrong: between a driver who thinks he's driving a fighter jet, a jealous colleague and passengers who are each crazier than the last, what was supposed to be a formality turns into the worst trip of his life.

Ducobu is elected president of the school, much to Léonie and Latouche's despair!

A group of artists, composed of the young actors Wilfried and Matthieu and the actresses Sophie, Mathilde and the dumb Jeanne, is hired by a millionaire, Axel de Fersen, to present a performance of Little Red Riding Hood in his isolated castle to celebrate the birthday of his grandson. Meanwhile, the police advises that a serial killer is raping and killing young women in the woods around that area. During the night, the group feels trapped and threatened in the castle, guessing who is and where might be the killer.

In Paris, a gold smuggler is at war with other local gangsters who want piece of the action. Then the mob shows up and makes things worse. And an undercover US Treasury Department agent is trying to infiltrate the smuggling business.

30 years after Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone is still stigmatized for her role as a sexual psychopath. But the Oscar nominee has always fought against domination. She embodies the independent woman of the 21st century, who refuses to be invisibilized and a "passive" object, subjected only to the male gaze.

Bucharest, 1972. Ana, 17, dreams of love and freedom. One night, while partying with her friends, they decide to send a letter to Metronom, the musical program which Radio Free Europe broadcasts clandestinely in Romania. It is then that the Securitate, Ceausescu’s secret police, arrives…

A young Parisian advertising executive becomes so captivated by the unsettling charm of his mysterious new employer that he eventually abandons his family and friends, viewing it a privilege to let the ubiquitous employer take over his home, his life, his desire. Only his wife remains suspicious, recognizing both the pathos and the evil in the man’s soul-stealing power.

South Africa, Free State region, isolated stronghold to the Afrikaans white ethnic minority culture. In this conservative farming territory obsessed with strength and masculinity, Janno is different, secretive, emotionally frail. One day his mother, fiercely religious, brings home Pieter, a hardened street orphan she wants to save, and asks Janno to make this stranger into his brother. The two boys start a fight for power, heritage and parental love.

Anna is working at a Parisian advertising agency. The director has fallen in love with a young woman he only knows through a photograph — of Anna.

In a moment of anger in a grocery store in Lausanne, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. A shocked customer immediately intervenes to express her concern. Other customers join the conversation and the discussion soon turns into a debate that gradually gets out of hand.

Returning home from a business trip to discover his wife missing, a man delves deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder.

There is something strange - some would even say abnormal - about the Malaussène family. But if you take a closer look, no one could be happier than this cheerfully chaotic family, even though their mother is usually off on one romantic adventure or another. Life is never a bore for Benjamin Malaussène, professional scapegoat and the older brother responsible for this horde of kids. But when incidents happen wherever he goes, police and colleagues begin to eye him suspiciously. It soon becomes a matter of life and death to find out what is going on and who is so interested in ruining his life. Written by Pathe International

When the mother of a "tribe" of five children leaves for good, their inept father is not sure how to keep the family clothed and fed, and without the help of his neighbor Simone, he would be nowhere. She is attracted to him but eventually gives up on the relationship. Meanwhile, the father grabs his brood and they take off for Paris in search of the wife. But Simone accidentally ends up on the same train...

When Billie learns that her estranged parents' lives are at risk, she tries to help them by robbing a bank. In her botched robbery attempt, she takes a hostage named Franny, who turns out to be a charmingly impulsive pregnant teenager with nothing left to lose. Together, Billie and Franny embark on a chase through scenic American landscapes, clashing and struggling for common ground in hopes for a brighter future.

A quarrel between two women that a man attempts to separate.

Jean, a married 40-year-old filmmaker, and his young working class lover, Catherine, engage in a circular series of spectacular blow-ups and tentative reunions, their mutual desire a fire that burns them again and again.

An aeronautical engineer at Ariane Espace, Jim has devoted himself for years to a secret project: building his own rocket and accomplishing the first manned space flight as an amateur. But to realize his dream, he must learn to share it.

The friends who attended the same boarding school meet and take turns telling their recent romantic experiences. These turn out to be as varied as they are crisp, from the initiation of a student by a teacher to the misunderstanding in the company of a lord, through the false English but true seducer, the swimmer obsessed with his physical condition and, obviously, love in a group (Le Chat Qui Fume).

Paul is married to Sali. Everything would be fine if they could get a child. Until the day when Sali receives the call that they have been waiting for so long: their adoption file is approved. He is adorable, he is 6 months old, his name is Benjamin. He is blond with blue eyes and white. They - are black.

Marc and Emma move into a new house but have no idea that their basement was a gay nightclub. To make matters worse, the club was destroyed by fire, and now the house is haunted by the ghosts of five gay clubbers.

The Mercy of the Jungle is a road movie that deals with wars in Congo through the eyes of two lost soldiers in the jungle by showcasing their struggle, weakness and hope.

In August 1952, a family of British tourists is found by the roadside in Haute Provence, brutally murdered. In the ensuing, very public, investigation a local landowner, 75 year old Gaston Dominici, is arrested for the murders, having been denounced by his sons. Under police interrogation, Dominici confesses to have killed the family and it looks certain that he will be charged, tried and sentenced to death. But then the case begins to collapse. The old man retracts his confession and the lack of evidence against him becomes apparent…

Kom is from a tribe of monkeys who live in a canopy. He rejects elders' authority as well as the superstition that the lower world would be inhabited by demons. But he accidentally falls from the trees…

Julien Bouin, a former typographist, and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, soon to be demolished. His cat Greffier being the only one he still gives affection to, he becomes the object of Clemence's anger.

Three disparate people meet in a bizarre skiing accident: an alcoholic doctor who has just been left by his wife, a beautiful but directionless woman, and the bumbling Algerian man who caused the accident. They become fond of each other, and of liquor.

Etienne is crazy about ice skating and videoing his daily life with a digital camera. He records his mother, friends, and geography teacher. Initially his intention is to setup a date between his mother and his teacher, however, he starts to realize that he is infatuated with the teacher himself.

Paris, 1977. Eleven year old Stella knows poker better than grammar when she starts the year at a prestigious new school. There, she discovers the possibilities of a whole new world outside her parents' bar.

Lucien, 14, can’t understand why his father, a serious and respected teacher, makes a fool of himself by dressing up as a clown and giving a show. André, Lucien’s father’s best friend, feels for the teenager and decides to reveal something from their mutual past that will explain the reason for Lucien’s father’s strange behavior.

While Montreal is in the throes of a string of kidnappings targeting young boys, ten-year-old Felix is finishing his school year in the seemingly quiet suburb where he lives. A sensitive boy with a vivid imagination, Felix is afraid of everything. Little by little, his imaginary demons begin to mirror those of the truly disturbing world around him.