The programme for the 2020 edition of the Irish Film Institute’s annual French Film Festival has been revealed. This November, you can catch a variety of francophonic films on the IFI@Home media player.
The 2020 Festival will run from November 11th – 22nd. The IFI French Film Festival is always a great opportunity to see the latest and greatest from one of the world’s best producers of cinema, with last year’s festival edition notably including an advance opportunity to see one of the best films of the year in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The programme for the 2020 festival will feature 20 new or recent French films in a variety of genres: drama, comedy, action, documentary, animation and more. The festival will also offer the traditional Family Screening, with this year’s online iteration also offering a historical perspective, with a 2-film focus on French director Jean Grémillion.
Grémillon films are described by the IFI as filled with humanity and modernity, with strong, independent female characters, and carefully observed depictions of working class society. The two films that will screen as part of the retrospective of the filmmaker are aviatrix drama The Woman Who Dared (Sat 14th) and maritime epic Stormy Waters (Sun 15th). An online interview with French film historian Geneviève Sellier and academic Douglas Smith, and an introduction to Stormy Waters by academic Tony Tracy, will also take place as part of this aspect of the festival.
Alliance Française Dublin will be providing their usual support for the festival, this year via the Jean-Paul Salomé comedy/crime drama La Daronne. This film features French screen icon Isabelle Huppert playing Patience Portefeux, a French-Arabic translator working for the anti-drug squad in Paris. One day she sets off to help out a woman’s troubled son as a favor and gets embroiled in a failed drug deal, inheriting a pile of cannabis. While keeping her job with the anti-drug squad, Patience crosses to the other side and becomes a well-known drug dealer.
The family film of this year’s festival is Rémi Chayé’s Calamity, set to begin screening on the festival closing day of theNovember 22nd. This animated film looks at the life of the young girl who would come to be known as Calamity Jane.
All screenings for the IFI French Film Festival cost €7.50 for a 3-day rental and English subtitles are provided.
The festival schedule below shows the day and time from which films are open for streaming on the IFI@Home platform. They are available for 72 hours. Once viewers start a film, a 48 hour window to finish it opens up. Film festival bundles are available also from the IFI.
The IFI French Film Festival is supported by the Embassy of France in Ireland, The Irish Times, RTÉ Supporting the Arts, Alliance Française Dublin, Institut Français, and Europa Cinemas.
IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.
You can check out the full programme for the 2020 IFI French Film Festival below and can start adding films to your watch list in advance of November over at IFI@Home.
OPENING FILM – Available from 6pm on Wednesday 11th to 10pm on Saturday 14th
The Big Hit (Un Triomphe)
Available from 6pm on Thursday 12th to 10pm on Sunday 15th
Adolescents (Adolescentes)
Red Soil (Rouge)
Available from 6pm on Friday 13th to 10pm on Monday 16th
Lola (Lola vers la mer)
Availablefrom 12pm on Saturday 14th to 10pm on Tuesday 17th
Enormous (Énorme)
Night Shift (Police)
Jean Grémillion: The Woman Who Dared (Le ciel est à vous)
Available from 4pm on Saturday 14th to 10pm on Saturday 14th
Love Affair(s)* (Les choses qu’on dit, les choses qu’on fait)
(Note: Due to rights restrictions, Love Affairs(s) is available to rent from 4 – 10 on Saturday 14th. All rentals must be COMPLETED by 10pm on Sunday 15th)
Available from 12pm on Sunday 15th to 10pm on Wednesday 18th
Josep
Mama Weed (La daronne)
Jean Grémillion: Stormy Waters (Remorques)
Available from 6pm on Monday 16th to 10pm on Thursday 19th
À l’abordage
Those Who Work (Ceux qui travaillent)
Available from 6pm on Tuesday 17th to 10pm on Friday 20th
#IAmHere (#JeSuisLà)
The Nest (Pingouin et Goëland et leurs 500 petits)
Available from 6pm on Wednesday 18th to 10pm on Saturday 21st
The Squad (Les Joueuses)
Thalasso
Available from 6pm on Thursday 19th to 10pm on Sunday 22nd
Margaux Hartmann (L’étreinte)
A Son (Bik Eneich: Un fils)
Available from 6pm on Friday 20th to 10pm on Monday 23rd
The Salt of Tears (Le sel des larmes)
Available from 12pm on Saturday 21st to 10pm on Tuesday 24th
My Donkey, My Lover and I (Antoinette dans les Cévennes)
Available from 12pm on Sunday 22nd to 10pm on Wednesday 25th
IFI French Film Festival Family Screening: Calamity (Calamity, une enfance de Martha Jane Cannary)
Looking for Gilles Caron (Histoire d’un regard)