This fall, French films will take on the big screens between September 23 – October 4, both outdoors and in cinemas. The French Film Festival will take place in 11 cities in Romania: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Arad, Brasov, Braila, Constanta, Sfantu Gheorghe, Sibiu and Suceava.

The motto of this year’s edition is Le film français au féminin / French film in the feminine and focuses on French female filmmakers, directors and actresses, well-known or beginners, and on remarkable female characters.

Among the long-awaited sections of the festival are:

Young Talents Focus – a section presented with the support of TV5 Monde, which brings into the spotlight the new voices in French cinema. It includes films such as Alice et le maire / Alice and the Mayor (dir. Nicolas Pariser), Un divan à Tunis / Arab Blues (dir. Manele Labidi), Tu mérites un amour / You Deserve a Lover (dir. Hafsia Herzi);

This year’s films Panorama – where the public will have the chance to watch films such as Proxima (dir. Alice Winocour), Portrait de la jeune fille en feu / Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma) – Best Screenplay Award at Cannes 2019, La bonne épouse / How to Be a Good Wife (dir. Martin Provost);

Cahiers du Cinéma: vive les insoumuses! – as its own name suggests, this section follows the muses of cinema who refuse to bow to the norms. “A cult film, a militant documentary, two recent comedies and a collection of short films made in the beginning of the last century, all signed by female directors, they will remind you of why revolution is a feminine noun.” Some of the films screened are: La fiancée du pirate / A very Curious Girl (dir. Nelly Kapla), Delphine et Carole / Delphine and Carole (dir. Callisto McNulty).

As a tribute to filmmaker Agnès Varda, the French Film Festival will host a screening of her latest film, Varda par Agnès.

Partner projects

FFF also hosts a series of partner projects that promote visibility and equality in Romanian cinema.

FemArt Residency 2020 – a project developed by the Romanian Association of Women in Cinema. This year it comes as a screenwriting residency for five Romanian female directors who are at their first or second feature film;

F-Sides film club – the first Romanian film club dedicated exclusively to films made by women and alternative ways of looking at and representing female entities in cinema and society;

Georgiana Vrajitoru, F-Sides curator, will moderate a discussion after the screening of La fiancée du pirate / A very Curious Girl (dir. Nelly Kapla), featured in the Cahiers du Cinéma section.

Cinema Sub Clar De Luna – a project by the Transilvania Film Festival Association. This last month, when the movie theaters were closed, Cinema Sub Clar De Luna offered the public the opportunity to watch movies on the big screen, in open air. Now it will host four screenings in partnership with the French Film Festival.

The screening schedule for each city can be found here. For screenings taking place in Bucharest, tickets are available on Eventbook.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.