The French Film Festival is one of the top events on offer every year at the Irish Film Institute. A seasonal soiree embraced by local Francophiles and expatriated film fans alike, the festival offers a great mix of new hits from France and classic cinema, offering a venue for cultural exchange that brings us closer together as the year begins to draw to a close. The IFI French Film Festival 2021 will be taking place from November 17th until the 28th. A blended approach will be available next month, with films on offer in-cinema at the IFI in Temple Bar, and online on IFI@Home.
French screen icons like Virginie Efira, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Paul Belmondo and more will be seen on the big screen as part of the 28 features taking place at this year’s French Film Festival. 15 of those films will also be available to stream on IFI@Home, as the festival adapts the blended approach for its 20th edition. Each film streaming will be available for three days from its IFI@Home premiere, with a 72-hour library window once rented, and a 48-hour watch window once you click ‘Play’.
Bold and exciting new films from some of France’s best directors are included in the impressive in-cinema programme. On Thursday 18th November, you can see Céline Sciamma’s latest film Petit Maman. Sciamma’s follow up to Portrait of a Lady on Fire calls to mind her earlier fare including Tomboy, as she continues to explore young female identity. Nelly, an 8-year-old girl, has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. One day, her mom abruptly leaves, and Nelly meets a girl her age as she’s building a tree house in the woods.
Julie Ducournau meanwhile, launches into ever more explosive storytelling. The Raw director’s new film Titane has been spoken of in awed whispers, rising to a scream on the festival circuit over the last year. The full extent of this transgressive body horror is surely best experienced with as little detail as possible going in if you’re catching this one on Friday 26th November.
The festival will celebrate the full spectrum of French cinema, spanning different eras in its screening of some well-regarded classics. The talents of the great Maggie Cheung are showcased in Oliver Assayas’ dreamy genre-hop Irma Vep. The Young Girls of Rochefort saw Jacques Demy continue his lush and vibrant cinematic expression, while That Man From Rio is an exciting, dazzling display from the iconic Belmondo. The festival’s lens extends all the way back to 1940, with Henri Decoin’s Beating Heart revealing the pulse that still pumped through German Occupation. The film tells the story of a young woman escaping from reform school who tries to steal a foreign ambassador’s watch but ends up falling in love with him.
In-cinema multi-film passes are available from the IFI, with 5-film passes for €50 and 10-film pass for €90. Online, a bundle of every film streaming on IFI@Home is available for €74.99, with a pass for any five of the films also on offer at €35. Check out the full list of films screening at the IFI French Film Festival HERE et bon visionnage de votre voyage.