The 11th IFI French Film Festival offers a programme of over twenty Irish premieres, with films from first-time directors and greats such as Tavernier and Godard. This year’s programme includes diverse offerings ranging from period pieces to documentaries covering troubling topics such as immigration, terrorism, fractured family dynamics and inter-generational conflict.
Amongst the new features are Xavier Beauvois’ powerful Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux), which won this year’s Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize and has been selected to represent France at the Academy Awards. Other films shown to great acclaim at Cannes are Rachid Bouchareb’s controversial Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi), the tight and fascinating In the Beginning (À l’origine) directed by Xavier Giannoli, and tackling the timely subject of immigration in thought-provoking ways are Romain Goupil’s Hands Up (Les Mains en l’air) and Olivier Masset-Depasse’s outstanding Illegal (Illégal), winner of the SACD prize at Cannes.
Also included are a number of well-toned comedies such as Marc Fitoussi’s Copacabana, which stars Lolita Chammah alongside her mother, Isabelle Huppert. Michel Leclerc’s hit The Names of Love (Le Nom des gens) features a star-making turn from Sara Forestier, while Depardieu gives a stand-out performance in the excellent and revitalising Mammuth. We are very honoured to welcome Michel Ciment, esteemed critic and author, who is both the subject of a documentary and a participant in another about John Boorman. We are delighted to welcome them both to the Festival.
Recent months saw the sad passing of one of the Nouvelle Vague greats, Claude Chabrol, to whom tribute is payed with a screening of The Butcher (Le Boucher). Also showing is Godard’s final film (we’ll see!), the symphonic and beautiful Socialism (Film Socialisme), as well as a screening of his Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma. In happy contrast, introduced is a selection of three films by first-time directors which point to an exciting future for French cinema.
The Festival is made possible with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland and the IFI’s principle funder, the Arts Council.