New French Cinema Week 2026

Austin Film Society’s annual celebration of the Francophone world’s most distinctive new films from emerging voices is back, organized and presented in partnership with the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers, France. From November 12 to 15, cinephiles will have a unique opportunity to discover new French-language films, including festival favorites and award nominees, many of which have yet to secure US distribution.

Schedule:
November 12 | 6:00 PM | Opening Night 

November 12 | 7:30 PM | WILD FOXES, directed by Valéry Carnoy

In his critically acclaimed first feature film, writer/director Valéry Carnoy has crafted a propulsive narrative with a stellar ensemble cast, sensitively examining a group of young athletes facing dramatic life changes. Camille is a champion boxer at a French boarding school for elite athletes. A terrible accident changes the course of his training, and his ideas about the future are called into question. A selection of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and the Premiers Plans Festival of Angers, where it won the Best Actor award.

With writer/director Valéry Carnoy in attendance.

November 13 | 6:30PM | LA GRADIVA, directed by Marine Atlan

A timeless, humanist tale with its roots in the cinema of Jacques Rozier and the Italian neo-realists, this stunning and layered feature debut by Marine Atlan (celebrated cinematographer from last year’s GIRL IN THE SNOW) took home the top prize at Cannes Critics’ Week last May. A high school trip to Naples brings a group of 17-year-olds face to face with ancient history. Personalities clash, and family histories collide with the present as the trip drives each student on an inward voyage to better understand the adults they are becoming, and in turn, who they’ll be to each other.

November 14 | 4:00PM | A MAN OF HIS TIME, directed by Emmanuel Marre

Writer-director Emmanuel Marre exposes the fine lines between ambition and sin in this fresh and imaginative story about a Vichy government loyalist during France’s Nazi occupation. In the early 1940s, businessman Henri Marre (a brilliant Swann Arlaud) arrives in the new seat of the collaborationist French government in Vichy, France, armed with a self-published manifesto on government management practices and intent on making a name for himself in the newly formed cabinet of Marshal Pétain. Abandoning his wife and children in Nazi-occupied Paris, Marre’s restless ambition will bring him to the brink as the Vichy government incrementally takes on the Nazi agenda.

Best Screenplay winner at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

November 14 | 7:30PM | SHANA, directed by Lila Pinell

Shana is a girl who’s got problems. So many, it turns out, that she might be contending with the biblical plagues. When her abusive dealer boyfriend gets out of prison to find a stack of his money gone missing, Shana’s in danger of being on the wrong side of a criminal gang, with only a magic ring (inherited from her Moroccan-Jewish grandmother) to protect her. A dark comedy featuring a messy heroine who can do no right, SHANA is a captivating vision and a true collaboration between rising director Lila Pinell and her star, Eva Huault.

November 15 | 4:00PM | THAT SUMMER IN PARIS, directed by Valentine Cadic

Director Valentine Cadic shows off her mastery of indie filmmaking craft in this bright and winning fish-out-of-water chronicle, set against the backdrop of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Blandine is a soft-spoken 30-year-old from a small town in Normandy who heads to Paris with a few dreams in mind: see her favorite swimmer dominate at the games, and reconnect with her estranged Parisian half-sister. After a few strokes of bad luck and more than a few expectations shattered, the journey will challenge Blandine to face what she really wants from her trip, and from life.

November 15 | 7:00PM | FLESH & FUEL, directed by Pierre Le Gall

A middle-aged man’s life is turned upside down after a coup de coeur with a fellow long-distance truck driver in this neo-realist queer romance. Etienne is a seasoned long-hauler who has sacrificed relationships and a personal life for his profession. One night on the road, what seems to be a random hook-up with a Polish trucker turns into an unforeseen connection, but Etienne will have to contend with his identity as a committed workaholic for the relationship to go anywhere. FLESH & FUEL features a nuanced observation of a modern middle-aged gay romance that doesn’t come with a map, and outside the truck windows, a rapidly changing Europe.