French Films and New Media Highlights in November

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.

Each year, the International Emmy® Awards celebrate the very best in television from around the world, bringing together leading producers and creators to compete for one of the industry’s most prestigious international honors. For the 2026 edition, 64 nominees across 16 categories and representing 22 countries are in the running. France is well represented, with four productions nominated across four categories. The 54th International Emmy® Awards Gala will take place in New York City on November 23.

Former Villa Albertine resident Bojina Panayotova presents With Love and Rage at DOC NYC 2026.

November 17, 1980, is a watershed date for American feminism. It was the day when thousands of women surrounded the Pentagon in protest of Ronald Reagan’s war policies. Filmmaker Bojina Panayotova reconstructs that forgotten history through a fiery archival collage that brings together songs, accounts, footage, and testimonies. With sound, images, and texts, her archive of a movement serves as an instructional guide to those who, decades on, are fighting the same fight today. – Bedatri D. Choudhury

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Bojina Panayotova.

De Gaulle – Part One: Resistance, by Antonin Baudry, in theaters in the U.S. from November 6, 2026.

In June 1940, as the French army collapses, General de Gaulle refuses the armistice. He flies to London, where he lays the foundations of the Resistance.

A special screening will also take place at the Lycée Français on Wednesday, November 4, at 6:30 PM.

Minotaur, by Andrey Zvyagintsev, in theaters in the U.S. from November 20, 2026.
Winner of the Grand Prix and the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. France’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards.

Russia, 2022. Corporate executive Gleb finds himself under siege on all fronts: haunted by suspicions that his wife is unfaithful and facing a demand to draft a quota of employees for war. Though desperate to keep his hands clean, his struggle to reassert control accelerates toward violence.

From November 20 to 25 at Film at Lincoln Center, and from November 19 to 26 at Angelika Film Center.

Special screenings with Q&As featuring director Andrey Zvyagintsev:

• November 19, 6 PM – Angelika Film Center
• November 20, 3 PM and 6:30 PM – Film at Lincoln Center
• November 20, 7:30 PM – Angelika Film Center

All of a Sudden, by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, in theaters in the U.S. from November 25, 2026.
Winner of the Best Actress Award at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival for Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.

Director of a care facility for the elderly, Marie-Lou strives to introduce an innovative care philosophy based on listening and respecting residents’ dignity, despite resistance from part of her staff. Her encounter with Mari, a Japanese theater director battling cancer, will profoundly reshape her path. By forming a deep, supportive friendship, the two women join forces in a shared struggle to make the impossible possible.

From November 25 to 28 at Film at Lincoln Center, and from November 20 to 30 at Film Forum.

Special screenings followed by Q&As with director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi will take place on November 18 and 19 at Film at Lincoln Center, November 19 at MoMA, and November 20 and 22 at Film Forum. A special preview screening featuring actress Virginie Efira, in conversation with critic Melissa Anderson, will also take place at Metrograph on November 13.

In Waves, by Phuong Mai Nguyen, in select theaters in the U.S. from November 27, 2026, ahead of its Netflix release on December 11, 2026.

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 November on The Criterion Channel, rediscover French cinema with Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le Mulet), a moving portrait of a Franco-Tunisian family navigating ambition, tradition, and the dream of opening a restaurant in the south of France.

Metrograph celebrates acclaimed actress Virginie Efira with a selection of films spanning her career, including In Bed with Victoria by Justine Triet, Benedetta by Paul Verhoeven, and Other People’s Children by Rebecca Zlotowski. The program opens on November 13 with an introduction by Efira ahead of a screening of In Bed with Victoria.

DOC NYC, one of the leading documentary film festivals in the United States, returns to New York from November 11–29, showcasing a selection of French films and international co-productions. This year’s lineup includes Gabin by Maxence Voiseux, The Cord by Nolwenn Hervé, Boomerang Atomic by Rachid Bouchareb, Of Your Tenderness by Zoulikha Tahar, and With Love and Rage by former Villa Albertine resident Bojina Panayotova. The selection explores themes ranging from coming of age and reproductive rights to colonial history and feminist activism.

With the support of Villa Albertine, Anthology Film Archives celebrates French cinema with AMALRIC ↔ ZORN, a retrospective exploring the creative collaboration between filmmaker and actor Mathieu Amalric and composer John Zorn, running November 13–25. Highlights include Amalric’s music-inspired biopic Barbara, his intimate drama Hold Me Tight (Serre-moi fort), and Maîtres anciens – Comédie, alongside a trilogy of documentaries exploring Zorn’s musical universe. Both artists will attend selected screenings. The program is presented with the support of Villa Albertine, Unifrance, and LaScam.

French actress and filmmaker Emmanuelle Béart will visit the United States in November to present Un Silence si Bruyant (Such a Resounding Silence), her 2023 documentary co-directed with filmmaker Anastasia Mikova. Breaking the silence surrounding incest, the film brings together Béart’s personal experience and the testimonies of other survivors.

Emmanuelle Béart will present the documentary at Princeton University on November 19 and NYU on November 23. She will also present Un Silence si Bruyant at the United Nations on November 18. She will also present two landmark films from her career: Claude Sautet’s Un cœur en hiver at the Alliance Française on November 21, followed by a Q&A, and Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud at Film Forum on November 24.

This November, 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 Carroll College, Drexel University, Fordham University, Georgia Southern University, Lafayette College, Middlebury College, NYU / La Maison française, Purdue University, Southern Connecticut State University, the University at Albany, the University of Florida, and Utah State University.

This November, Metrograph celebrates French cinema in New York with a selection spanning the work of Alain Resnais, Chantal Akerman, and Justine Triet. Highlights include Resnais’s science-fiction romance Je t’aime, je t’aime, Akerman’s contemplative Les rendez-vous d’Anna, and Triet’s acclaimed dramas In Bed with Victoria and Sibyl. The program also features Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children and a special preview of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s French-language film All of a Sudden, starring Virginie Efira, followed by a Q&A with the actress.

As part of its History on Trial film series, Columbia University’s Maison Française presents Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (2022) on December 3. Inspired by a real-life French court case, the acclaimed film follows a novelist attending the trial of a young Senegalese woman accused of killing her infant daughter. Through the courtroom proceedings, Diop explores questions of motherhood, race, migration, and postcolonial identity in contemporary France. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Aubrey Gabel and Zoë L. Henry.

MoMA’s annual The Contenders series brings together some of the most compelling films of the year, including a rich selection of French productions and international co-productions. Among the highlights are Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva (November 4), Louis Clichy’s animated feature Le Corset (Iron Boy) (November 8), Florian Zeller’s Bunker (November 15), Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur (November 17), and Alain Gomis’s Dao (November 23). The selection also features Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure and Nadav Lapid’s Yes, showcasing the diversity and international reach of French filmmaking.

The Federation of Alliances Françaises USA and Telescope Film invite audiences to the December edition of the French Cinémathèque, featuring Arnaud Desplechin’s Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale, 2008). Starring Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric and Melvil Poupaud, this acclaimed family drama follows the Vuillard family as they reunite for Christmas after their matriarch falls ill, bringing long-buried tensions and complicated relationships to the surface. Participants are invited to watch the film ahead of a free online discussion in English with film critic and historian Beatrice Loayza on December 7.

Filmmaker Amos Gitai and The New Yorker contributing writer Eyal Press will come together at Villa Albertine to reflect on the political legacy of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, thirty-one years after his assassination. Through a conversation exploring political extremism, the dangers of inflammatory rhetoric, and the fragility of democratic societies, they will consider what Rabin’s assassination can teach us today. The evening will open with an excerpt from Gitai’s film Rabin, the Last Day, followed by a discussion, audience Q&A, and book signing at Albertine Books.

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 November’s latest additions to IFCinema, featuring a selection of recent French films alongside the platform’s curated collections. New titles include La Vie de château – Mon enfance à Versailles, by Clémence Madeleine Perdrillat and Nathaniel H’limi, Le Secret des mésanges by Antoine Lanciaux, Planètes by Momoko Seto or Baise-en-ville by Martin Jauvat 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 Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s En résidence surveillée, Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore, and Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies—are gradually becoming available on the platform, expanding access to landmark films and preserving an invaluable cinematic heritage for future generations.

The Young French Cinema program offered by Villa Albertine and Unifrance and featuring six acclaimed French films still awaiting U.S. distribution, is available for screenings on campus until May 2027. 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.

Join us on November 17 for a webinar on the Cine-Tamaris/INA educational project, exploring how U.S. students re-edit original footage from Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I to craft their own short films and video essays.

Since its launch in the 2024–2025 academic year, the Cine-Tamaris/INA educational editing platform built around Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I has been adopted by 12 class cohorts across nine institutions in the United States. Using 55 hours of original footage from the film, hosted on the INA platform, students re-edit, reimagine, and respond to Varda’s material.

In this webinar, we will introduce the project, share the outcomes of its first two years, and answer questions about bringing it into university courses and classrooms.

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;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.