French Films and New Media Highlights in October

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur was recently named as France’s official entry for the Best International Feature category at the 99th Academy Awards. The movie will have its New York premiere as part of the Main Slate of the 64th New York Film Festival, running from September 25 to October 12. The film, distributed by MUBI, will be in theaters nationwide on November 20.

NYFF returns through October 12 with a new slate of essential cinema from around the globe, once again giving French filmmaking top billing.

We are delighted to share that Sepideh Farsi, former Villa Albertine resident, has been selected for the 2026 Chicken & Egg Films Research & Development Grant. She will receive a Development Grant for her animated feature Memoirs of an Undutiful Daughter. Born in Tehran, Farsi studied mathematics in Paris before turning to cinema. She is known for the animated feature The Siren (Berlinale 2024), winner of the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animation, as well as documentaries such as Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk.

Chloë Aubert has been named one of Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch for 2026. Specializing in 2D animation, Aubert is the animation director of Iron Boy, directed by Louis Clichy, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and received recognition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Her work also includes acclaimed animated features such as Long Way North, The Breadwinner, and Wolfwalkers.

Case 137, by Dominik Moll, in theaters in the U.S. from October 16, 2026.
Winner of the Best Actress César for Léa Drucker.

Case 137 is seemingly just another case for Stéphanie, an investigator at the IGPN, the police of the police. But an unexpected element will trouble Stéphanie and transform case 137 into something more than a simple number.

Fjord, by Cristian Mungiu, in theaters in the U.S. from October 9, 2026.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
A Romania, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark co-production.

From two⁠-⁠time Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu, a Norwegian woman and her devout Romanian husband relocate with their five children to a remote, close⁠-⁠knit, coastal town. Their teenage children form a fast bond with a neighboring family as unease begins to simmer around their rigid beliefs. When allegations of abuse emerge, they are forced to confront a system of judgment that blurs the line between concern and prejudice.

La Bola Negra, by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, in theaters in the U.S. from October 16, 2026.
Winner of the Best Director Award (ex-aequo) at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
A Spain and France co-production.

La Bola Negra follows three generations of men across pivotal moments in Spanish history: 1932, 1937, and 2017. Carlos (Quifes) longs to belong in a fractured Spain. Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) finds connection across enemy lines. And Alberto (González) uncovers a long-buried family secret — one that finally gives voice to truths the past tried to erase.

Gentle Monster, by Marie Kreutzer, in theaters in the U.S. from October 30, 2026.
An Austria, Germany and France co-production.

Lucy, a concert pianist, moves with her husband and young son to a country house in the hope of helping her husband recover from severe burnout. Their new beginning is shattered when the police arrive to arrest him and seize his computers, forcing Lucy to question how well she really knows the man she loves.

Set on the eve of the 21st century, Tsai Ming-liang’s fourth feature turns a crumbling Taipei apartment block into one of cinema’s strangest and most tender end-of-the-world romances. Perennial muse Lee Kang-sheng (‘the man upstairs’) and Yang Kuei-mei (‘the woman downstairs’) are among the building’s last holdouts, refusing evacuation as a mysterious epidemic spreads outside and rain batters the city without end. When a plumber leaves behind an unfinished repair, the man’s floor opens into an accidental passage between two sealed-off lives, turning leaks, trash, pesticide, and petty territorial warfare into a strange form of courtship. Among the most disarmingly funny and cathartic entries in Tsai’s filmography, u003cemu003eThe Holeu003c/emu003e finds hope in a world that seems to be falling apart, breaking its deadpan plague scenario open with splendorous Grace Chang musical numbers and poker-faced slapstick. Still playing in theaters nationwide, this 1998 vision of isolation remains uncannily, exhilaratingly prescient. A Big World Pictures release.

At the height of the Cold War, the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika—an actress, writer, and rally driver embark on a road trip in a black Buick cruiser across a divided Germany in ruins, traveling from the Allied-occupied city of Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar.

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

A unique selection of films by leading African filmmakers, the Cinémathèque Afrique collection brings together restored works spanning from 1955 to today. Restored by the Institut français and made available by TV5MONDE+, these films offer a rare and essential overview of African cinema, highlighting its diversity, history, and enduring creative power.

This month on The Criterion Channel, discover a selection of contemporary and international cinema, including Yann Gonzalez’s provocative and surreal short film Hideous, starring the xx’s Oliver Sim in a fantastical journey blending queer horror, music, and performance.

This year, NewFest brings several films from France to New York, highlighting a diverse range of voices and perspectives within contemporary queer cinema.

The French selection includes Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva, a sensual coming-of-age drama set against the ruins of Pompeii, and Arnaud Alain’s The Hidden Face of the Earth (La Face cachée de la Terre), a tender documentary portrait of a Parisian photographer gradually losing his sight. Both films offer distinctive perspectives on desire, identity, intimacy and the act of looking.

You can use the discount code VILLAALBERTINEnf38! when purchasing tickets for The Hidden Face of the Earth

Starting October 14, the 14th Annual Chelsea Film Festival returns to New York, continuing its mission of showcasing emerging filmmakers, producers, and actors from around the world and bringing independent cinema to new audiences. This year’s edition will feature a selection of French films and filmmakers, including Goddamn Gorilla, Puisque tout brûle, Affamée. et fâchée, Alone Against All, Gloria, I Will Be You, Nkoa, The Flesh Dress, The Clockmaker, and Without Mercy, alongside a diverse international lineup. The festival will take place in person at Regal Battery Park from October 14–18, with additional films available online through October 31. The 2026 edition will also feature the Reel Magic Hour Industry Summit, bringing together industry professionals for two days of panels and conversations on October 16–17.

This October, university festivals supported by the Albertine Cinémathèque continue across the country. Students can discover contemporary French and Francophone cinema through curated screenings, discussions, and special events at campuses including Bennington College, Bucknell University, Calvin University, Fordham University, Kent State University, Middlebury College, NYU / La Maison française, Purdue University, Southern Connecticut State University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Utah State University, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Metrograph celebrates French cinema this October with a selection spanning the work of Michael Haneke, François Truffaut, Louis Lumière, Jacques Rivette, Chris Marker, and Chantal Akerman. Highlights include Haneke’s acclaimed Amour, Truffaut’s beloved coming-of-age film Small Change, and Lumière’s charming early short La petite fille et son chat. The program also features Rivette’s Antigone, as well as Marker’s Sans Soleil and Akerman’s News from Home, screening as part of Trains: Local Routes.

Anthology Film Archives presents a daring selection of French cinema for October 2026, from Georges Franju’s Blood of the Beasts (1949) and Jean Genet’s only film, A Song of Love (1950), in a brand-new 35mm print, to Jean Epstein’s The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) and The Three-Sided Mirror (1927). The program also features Lazare Lazarus’s experimental documentaries Les Fantômes du hard, which excavate the archive of Marseille’s Mineshaft BDSM club, alongside Emre Busse’s Fistule (2026), in Narrow Rooms.

MoMA highlights French cinema this October with a rich selection of films by Éric Baudelaire, Chantal Akerman, Luc Decaster, Noëlle Pujol, and Emmanuelle Demoris. The program includes Baudelaire’s Un Film Dramatique and Also Known as Jihadi, Akerman’s Letters Home, D’est (From the East) and No Home Movie, as well as Decaster’s Qui a tué Ali Ziri? and Le chant des oubliés. The selection also features Pujol’s Histoire racontée par Jean Dougnac and Demoris’s Mafrouza – Oh la nuit!, offering a diverse portrait of contemporary French documentary and experimental cinema.

The Federation of Alliances Françaises USA and Telescope Film invite audiences to the next edition of the French Cinémathèque, featuring Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde. Following the film’s screening, participants will come together online for a free discussion in English with film critic and historian Beatrice Loayza.

Part of the French Cinémathèque’s monthly series celebrating Francophone cinema, this October edition offers an opportunity to discover Guiraudie’s acclaimed 2024 thriller and explore its themes, characters, and atmosphere in conversation with Beatrice Loayza. Participants are encouraged to watch Miséricorde before joining the discussion on October 26.

Interested in nocturnal mysteries? Step inside Manhattan’s secret cabaret immersive experience. Directed by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus, this reinvention of The Phantom of the Opera transforms the Paris Opera House into a fully enveloping world where audiences move freely through the story: from the grandeur of the masked ball to the intimacy of backstage dressing rooms, down through mirrored passages into the deepest corners of the Phantom’s lair. Woven throughout, live performances, DJ sets, and intimate masked encounters unfold within a hidden, luminous speakeasy — a sensory plunge into music, mystery, and after-dark revelry, stranger and more fantastically than you’ve ever dreamt it.

Discover this September’s latest additions to IFCinema, featuring a selection of recent French films alongside the platform’s curated collections. New titles include Mon inséparable by Anne-Sophie Bailly, and À toute allure by Lucas Bernard, bringing together a diverse selection of contemporary French cinema, from intimate family dramas to warm and offbeat comedies.

IFcinéma also spotlights the ongoing digitization of the Cinémathèque Afrique, one of the world’s most significant collections of African cinema. Established in 1961, the collection comprises more than 1,700 films from 45 countries spanning nearly seven decades. Recently digitized works—including Recent additions—including Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours in the World Are Between Black and White, Cyrille Masso and Daniel Minlo’s animated feature La Grotte sacrée, and Sidney Sokhona’s restored u003cemu003eNationalité immigréu003c/emu003e—are gradually becoming available on the platform, expanding access to landmark films and preserving an invaluable cinematic heritage for future generations.

Villa Albertine and Unifrance are pleased to unveil the 2026 Young French Cinema selection, featuring six acclaimed French films still awaiting U.S. distribution. From intimate auteur stories to socially engaged dramas, these bold new works spotlight the most exciting voices in contemporary French cinema, with women directors behind five of the six films. Available à la carte, the program invites art-house theaters, festivals, universities, and cultural organizations nationwide to bring today’s best French films to their audiences.

Discover the 3rd edition of this unique educational platform! Developed by Ciné-Tamaris and INA, with the support of Villa Albertine, the program offers a rare hands-on dive into Agnès Varda’s iconic editing process. If you’re interested in participating, please contact Adeline Monzier – adelinemonzier@gleanersandi.com and for the West Coast, Gwenael Deglise – gwendeglise@gleanersandi.com

The 2026-2027 Albertine Cinémathèque grantees will organize French film festivals on their campuses as part of our long-standing program with US colleges and universities. This year, our selection committee has recognized 55 French film festivals from a highly competitive pool of applicants. These festivals stood out for their strong curatorial and artistic vision, thoughtful integration into academic curricula, and potential for significant impact within their institutions.

Celebrate diversity in film from February 24–28, 2027, with New York City’s 15th Annual Winter Film Festival! The festival seeks fresh voices and creative independent films across all genres, with a strong focus on supporting emerging filmmakers. The program also features a filmmaker education series, Qu0026amp;A sessions with directors at every screening, and opportunities for selected films to receive press coverage, video promotions, and red carpet interviews. Use code WFF27GRP20 to receive 20% off your submission fee. Early Bird Deadline: September 14 · Regular Deadline: October 18 · Late Deadline: November 15.