On Screen This January: Film & TV in New York

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realizes that the city is far from being a non-violent refuge. The film premiered in the main competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it garnered widespread acclaim and emerged as the festival’s most awarded film, earning Wagner Moura the Best Actor award and Mendonça Filho the Best Director award.

Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, is suddenly reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he has a chance encounter with Eghbal, a man he strongly suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, Vahid rounds up a few of his fellow ex-prisoners to try and confirm Eghbal’s identity.  Master filmmaker Jafar Panahi creates a deeply felt moral thriller, where high stakes tension combines with unexpected flurries of humor and thoughtful, sometimes devastating, questions regarding persecution and revenge. Winner of the 2025 Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The world is a perplexing, peaceful mystery to Amélie until a miraculous encounter with chocolate ignites her wild sense of curiosity. As she develops a deep attachment to her family’s housekeeper, Nishio-san, Amélie discovers the wonders of nature as well as the emotional truths hidden beneath the surface of her family’s idyllic life as foreigners in post-war Japan. Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Amélie Nothomb and brought to life in the completely original animated style of directors Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain tells a tender, poignant, and visually stunning story about the healing power of human connection.

In a shelter in Liège, Belgium, a group of young women face the challenges and exhilaration of motherhood. Looking ahead to an uncertain future, the new mothers aspire to break free of the past and not repeat the cycles of neglect, abuse, and abandonment that have defined their young lives. Jessica grew up in a foster family, and must understand why her biological mother could not keep her. Perla wrestles with the unreliability of her boyfriend, and confronts the possibility that she may need to raise her child alone. Julie has a more stable partner, but cannot imagine parenthood until she overcomes her drug habit once and for all. And Ariane must protect her baby at all costs, with the daunting recognition that her home may not be safe for her daughter.

Winner of the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes, the latest film from master directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta; Two Days, One Night), Young Mothers is a delicate and hopeful study of women on the brink of new life.

A five-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, is the sole survivor trapped in a car under heavy Israeli military fire in Gaza. Her emergency calls reach the volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, who desperately attempt to calm and rescue her—the latter obstructed by IDF checkpoints and the unlikelihood of safe passage. In The Voice of Hind Rajab, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania blends the actual phone recordings—which went viral several weeks after this incident—with dramatizations of the emergency workers racing against time, and the situation’s emotional impact, to coordinate paramedics who could save her. By focusing on one life—and the lives of volunteers who risk their lives to save civilians—Ben Hania brings humanity and urgency to a war that has killed or caused the deaths of over 70,000, per a recent UN estimate.

A Private Life is a frisky, feminine, film noir about psychoanalysis and many other things…

Renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) is deeply troubled by the sudden death of one of her patients. Convinced that it was murder, she decides to investigate.

Villa Albertine and Unifrance are launching the 11th edition of Young French Cinema, a program that will tour in 2026 with a selection of six independent feature films by emerging French filmmakers who have not yet secured U.S. distribution. The films will be available for programming by American art-house theaters, film societies, and festivals, as well as universities and cultural institutions.

Here is the lineup for the 11th edition of Young French Cinema:

• “Affection Affection”, Alexia Walther, Maxime Matray (World Premiere at Locarno)

• “The Girl in the Snow”, Louise Hémon (World Premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes)

• “Leave One Day”, Amélie Bonnin (World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival)

• “Nino”, Pauline Loquès (World Premiere at Critics’ Week, Cannes)

• “That Summer in Paris”, Valentine Cadic (World Premiere at the Berlinale)

• “Wild Foxes”, Valéry Carnoy (World Premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes)

At the 35th New York Jewish Film Festival (January 14–28), several French or French‑linked films are featured as part of a global lineup exploring Jewish life and history: Once Upon My Mother, a fiery 1960s‑set drama about a devoted mother’s fight for her son; All I Had Was Nothingness, Guillaume Ribot’s documentary tribute to Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah with previously unseen footage; The Safe House, Lionel Baier’s multilayered portrait of a Jewish family in May ’68 Paris; and Real Estate, Anat Maltz’s poignant story of a couple seeking a home amidst economic pressures, spotlighting the finest documentary, narrative, and short films from around the world that explore the Jewish experience.

The screenings of Once Upon my Mother will be followed by a Q&A with the main character Roland Perez.

Maison Française at Columbia University will host screenings of two French productions, presented with the support of Albertine Cinémathèque: Johan Grimonprez’s documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, a powerful exploration of jazz, decolonization, and Cold War politics, and a new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic The Count of Monte Cristo, revisiting the timeless story of betrayal, justice, and revenge.

Following the success of the 33rd annual festival this past December, the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is returning to Teachers College, Columbia University for the “Best of ADIFF” encore series during MLK Weekend, with a strong selection of French films in this lineup:

• Fanon (Dir. Jean-Claude Barny) : A powerful new biographical drama tracing the transformative years of intellectual giant Frantz Fanon in Algeria.
• Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (Dir. Cheikh Djemaï) : An intimate documentary portrait shown as part of a double feature celebrating the centennial anniversaries of Fanon and Malcolm X.
• Foreign Body (Dir. Raja Amari): A bold and highly acclaimed exploration of the immigrant experience and women’s autonomy.

As part of the French Cinémathèque series, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident will be featured in an online discussion on January 12!

When a man stops for help after a traffic incident, he meets Vahid, who believes that the man was a prison officer who tortured him. Before enacting a revenge plan, Vahid gathers other victims to confirm the man’s identity.

Participants are encouraged to watch the film on a streaming platform prior to the discussion; the Zoom link for the talk will be sent after registration.

L’Alliance Française New York presents “Chabrol! Suspense! Restored!”, a retrospective of seven newly restored French films by French New Wave master Claude Chabrol, running from January 13 to February 24 at the Florence Gould Theater. The program features The Does, The Unfaithful Wife, This Man Must Die, The Butcher, The Breach, Just Before Nightfall, and Wedding in Blood, offering a compelling look at Chabrol’s signature psychological thrillers and incisive portraits of bourgeois society.

The 22nd edition of The Museum of Modern Art’s international festival of film preservation, To Save and Project, showcases a rich selection of classics and rediscoveries, including several French and French‑language titles such as :

The Old Place. 1999. Switzerland/USA. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville. Sun, Jan 25, 1:30 p.m., T2

Another film which was restored by Cinémathèque Afrique – Institut français:

Njangaan. 1975. Senegal. Directed by Mahama Johnson Traoré.

Wed, Jan 14, 2:00 p.m., T2

Mon, Jan 19, 6:30 p.m., T1

The Free Jazz on Film program was restored by the Centre Pompidou, Cinémathèque française, and Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA):

Sat, Jan 24, 7:00 p.m., T2 (Introduced by Robert O’Meally, Manthia Diawara, and Henry Threadgill)

Mon, Jan 26, 2:00 p.m., T1 : Daddy, codirected by Niki de Saint Phalle, on Wed, Jan 21, 7:00 p.m.

The Alliance Française presents Focus on French Cinema, which offers several films online from January to May, in addition to in‑person screenings at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. Silent Rebellion, directed by Marie Elsa Sgualdo, will be available online starting February 9, and What is Love? will have its U.S. premiere at the Bruce Museum on February 8.

Discover our roundup of this month’s must-see programs available on the international French-language network, TV5 Monde.