French film festival 2026
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Summer Beats: Special Screening Friday 12:30pm: $15 No Concessions
A Private Life: Opening Night $30/$25 Concession (includes a drink and hors d'oeuvres)
All other sessions: $25 / $20 Concession
Festival Pass only $120/$90 Concession : 7 movies excluding opening night
Concessions apply to Alliance Française de Cairns & End Credits members.
Sponsor one or more tickets to unprivileged people with a past refugee experience, and help us celebrate the richness of French cinema with a broader, more inclusive audience: here .
***All tickets can be purchased online except the passes that are only available to be purchased in person at Event cinemas Cairns Central***
Friday 8 May
12:00pm
Summer Beats
Ma Frere
COMEDY, DRAMA / FRANCE / 2025 / 112 MINS /CTC
Shai and Djeneba have always been besties, growing up together in the rough-and-tumble outer-city housing projects of Paris. Now 19, the two headstrong young women get jobs as camp counselors supervising a rambunctious brood of kids at a summer camp in the Drôme. Each grappling with her own personal psychodrama – be it a doomed first love or a painful, abusive family background – the girls suddenly find their lifelong friendship put to the test. Directors Romane Gueret and Lise Akoka, .
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Friday 8 May
8pm
a private life
Vie Privée
CRIME THRILLER, DRAMA / FRANCE / 2025 / 105 MINS / CTC
Paris. A shocking death, a determined psychiatrist, and a truth no one else wants to see.
When Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira, Waiting for Bojangles, AF FFF22) is found dead, the authorities rule it a suicide. But her psychiatrist, Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster in her first major French-language role), refuses to accept it. Convinced that Paula’s husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric, Sink or Swim, AF FFF19) is involved, she decides to investigate on her own – even if it means venturing far beyond her professional limits.
With the help of her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil, Love Boat, AF FFF25) and a hypnotist whose sessions trigger unsettling visions, Lilian is plunged into a labyrinth where memory, intuition, and doubt collide. Each vision brings her closer to the truth… or deeper into danger. Jodie Foster delivers a riveting performance worthy of her two Oscars and four Golden Globes, and showcases her sensational linguistic and emotional precision.
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (Other People’s Children, AF FFF23), the film reimagines the investigative thriller with a bold twist
– blending tension, dark humour, and witty couple dynamics within a charged psychological setting.
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Saturday 9 May
2:00pm
the richest woman in the world
La femme la plus riche du monde
COMEDY, DRAMA / FRANCE, BELGIUM / 2025 / 122 MINS / M
Few modern scandals have captivated France as the astonishing events surrounding Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress to the L’Oréal fortune and doyenne of Parisian society. Now writer/director Thierry Klifa has freely adapted the incredible story into a captivating dark comedy, featuring a jaw-dropping, tailor-made role for one of France’s most iconic stars.
Marianne Farrère (Isabelle Huppert, Things To Come, AF FFF17), the head of the Windler Group, is the richest woman in the world. Pierre-Alain Fantin (Laurent Lafitte, The Count of Monte Cristo, AF FFF25) is a vivacious dandy, writer and photographer. After meeting on a photo shoot, the two quickly become inseparable. Their friendship – one where Pierre-Alain is only too happy to take financial advantage – surprises, amuses, intrigues, and eventually unsettles the billionaire’s entourage and family.
Most of all, Marianne’s daughter (Marina Fois) struggles with her mother’s sudden complicity with this younger man, but her husband (André Marcon) and loyal butler (Raphaël Personnaz) share her concerns. Surreptitious queries soon transition into a private investigation, resulting in extraordinary ramifications for all involved…
With several twists too good to spoil, THE RICHEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD makes the most of its fabulous ensemble cast, but
Huppert and Lafitte simply eat up the screen. This wildly entertaining film became an enormous box-office hit in France for good reason.
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Saturday 9 May
4:30pm
Enzo
DRAMA / FRANCE, ITALY / 2025 / 102 MINS / M
The beautiful final work of the late Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet (The Class), brought to the screen by his longtime collaborator Robin Campillo (BPM, AF FFF18), ENZO is a tender meditation of adolescent longing, and the quiet rebellions that shape us.
16-year-old Enzo (extraordinary newcomer Eloy Pohu) has everything: a sun-drenched luxury home overlooking the Mediterranean, loving parents (Pierfrancesco Favino and Élodie Bouchez), and a future mapped toward privilege. Yet something unnameable pulls him to a different path and he commences a masonry apprenticeship, among people who work not because they choose to but because they have to.
On site he meets Vlad, a charismatic Ukrainian labourer who is facing pressure to return and fight in his country’s war against Russia. Vlad’s easy masculinity and uncertain future awaken something in the young man: he’s everything Enzo wishes he was. As their unlikely friendship deepens, Enzo will be forced to confront questions bigger than desire: about class, about duty, and about true courage.
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Saturday 9 May
8pm
colours of time
La Venue de l’avenir
COMEDY, DRAMA / FRANCE, BELGIUM / 2025 / 126 MINS / M
In 2025, nearly 30 individuals learn unexpectedly that they are linked by one shared ancestor, Adèle Meunier (Suzanne Lindon). The legacy awaiting them is unusual: a countryside home in Normandy, abandoned for decades and suspended in time.
Four of them, Seb (Abraham Wapler), Abdel (Zinedine Soualem, Divertimento, AF FFF24), Céline (Julia Piaton, Like a Prince, AF FFF25) and Guy (Vincent Macaigne, Three Friends, AF FFF25), are sent to survey the estate. They enter the property expecting organisation, documentation and clear boundaries. The house replies with echoes.
As they uncover traces of Adèle’s life, the story opens onto another era. In 1895, Adèle leaves Normandy at twenty and reappears in Paris, a city alive with invention, early photography and the rise of Impressionism. The film moves between 2025 and 1895, letting the past mirror the present. This dialogue across time gently challenges the relatives’ certainties, inviting them to rethink identity, legacy and the future they carry without realising it.
With COLOURS OF TIME, Cédric Klapisch (Rise, AF FFF22, Back to Burgundy, AF FFF18) fashions a sensitive and luminous family saga, connecting the great history of the 19th century to contemporary questions and the invisible ties that shape us across generations.
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Sunday 10 May
2:00pm
couture
Coutures
DRAMA / FRANCE / 2025 / 106 MINS / M
In Paris, at the heart of Fashion Week, Maxine (Angelina Jolie), an American filmmaker commissioned to direct a film for a prestigious fashion house, receives sudden news that destabilises her whole world.
Her path soon crosses with two other women: Ada (Anyier Anei), a young South Sudanese model who has travelled far to carve out her place in Paris, and Angèle (Ella Rumpf, Marguerite’s Theorem, AF FFF24), a French makeup artist quietly dreaming of a different life.
Between these three women from vastly different backgrounds, an unexpected solidarity begins to take shape. Beneath the glamorous surface of haute couture lies a quiet form of rebellion, as each woman, in her own way, attempts to mend the loose threads of her personal story.
The film follows their intertwined journeys through a world that is as captivating as it is ruthless, gradually revealing vulnerabilities, aspirations, and the power of a subtle yet essential bond.
Presented in a bilingual French-English format, COUTURE offers an intimate glimpse into the fashion world while exploring human connection and the resilience of women.
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Sunday 10 May
4:30pm
six days in spring
Six jours, ce printemps-là
DRAMA / BELGIUM, FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG / 2025 / 92 MINS / M
The deeply affecting new drama from multi award-winner Joachim Lafosse (A Silence, AF FFF24), SIX DAYS IN SPRING powerfully depicts the story of a hard-working single mother whose promise to offer her sons a vacation risks shattering the fragile stability of their everyday lives.
Recently divorced 40-something Sana (the terrific Eye Haïdara, C’est la vie!) struggles to make ends meet, working two jobs while raising her gregarious 10-year-old twins. When plans for their spring vacation fall through, Sana impulsively drives south to SaintTropez, to the unattended luxurious villa owned by her ex-husband’s parents; the family aspire to spend six sunlit days of laughter and relaxation at their borrowed paradise. But Sana’s carefully constructed illusion soon begins to crack: a seemingly friendly neighbour (Emmanuelle Devos, Perfumes, AF FFF21) has questions, a tradesman (Damien Bonnard, Three Friends, AF FFF25) challenges the boys’ behaviour, and – worst of all – their father demands information on their whereabouts...
Directed with precision and anchored by Haïdara’s stunning performance, SIX DAYS IN SPRING is a sensitive and incisive exploration of class, resilience, and the lengths a parent will go for their children’s happiness. Festivalgoers who responded to the artistic strengths of Full Time (AF FFF22), Àma Gloria (AF FFF24) and The Story of Souleymane (AF FFF25) should be similarly enriched by this beautiful and moving film.
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Sunday 10 May
8pm
case 137
Dossier 137
CRIME THRILLER, DRAMA / FRANCE / 2025 / 116 MINS / M
Stéphanie (Léa Drucker, The Stolen Painting, AF FFF25), an investigator at the French National Police General Inspectorate (IGPN), is assigned Case 137, involving Guillaume Girard (Côme Péronnet), a young man left in a critical condition after being struck by a rubber bullet during a tense demonstration in Paris.
At first, nothing points to clear police misconduct — until Stéphanie discovers that the victim is from her own hometown, Saint-Dizier, turning the case into something far more personal.
As she digs deeper, reviewing surveillance footage, retracing movements, and interviewing officers, Stéphanie confronts the 'blue wall of silence' that shields the institution. The few who might talk, hesitate; those who know more, refuse to. Her only support comes from Alicia Mady (Guslagie Malanda, Saint Omer, AF FFF23), a chambermaid and reluctant witness whose testimony could unlock the truth — but puts them both at risk of retaliation.
Torn between loyalty and justice, Stéphanie finds herself increasingly isolated within a system determined to protect its own.
Set against the backdrop of the gilets jaunes protests, CASE 137 is a gripping, socially-charged thriller from Dominik Moll (Only the Animals, AF FFF20), selected for official competition at the Cannes International Film Festival 2025.
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