Albertine Cinémathèque Festival Grants 2025 – 2026
Film & TV
Holy Cow © Zeitgeist Films
Welcome to our French Film Educational & Grant Program for American Universities & Colleges.
Designed to expand access to French cinema and support film programming at American colleges and universities, Albertine Cinémathèque’s annual film selection engages with the greatest issues of our time while nurturing an enduring love for this diverse and evolving art form.
Albertine Cinémathèque provides extensive resources to its members, including a list of films handpicked by its committee for on-campus events, and many opportunities to bring filmmakers into the conversation with students.
Albertine Cinémathèque continues to support French film festivals on campus with its annual Festival Grant. Grantees will be selected by a committee of university faculty and will benefit from a grant of $2,400.
We are excited to announce a new simplified process starting in 2025-2026: instead of transferring the grant money after completion of the festival, Albertine Foundation will book the films with the distributors on behalf of the grantees and will use the Grant money to pay the screening fees directly to the distributors.
American Universities and Colleges faculty can Become a Member of Albertine Cinémathèque for free!
Albertine Cinémathèque Members can:
— Book films from our Film Selection for on-campus events or festivals.
— Apply for our Film Festival Grant to help fund their very own French film festival on campus.
— Invite Filmmakers for post-screening conversations with students, whether in-person or virtually.
Check out the presentation from the May 8 webinar to learn more about the process.
Grantees 2025-2026
We are delighted to announce the 2025-2026 Albertine Cinémathèque Grantees who will be organizing a French film festival on their campuses as part of our long-standing program with US colleges and universities.
This year, our Selection Committee has chosen to reward 43 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.
As part of the program, Grantees will screen at least six films from our 2025–2026 Film Selection. This curated lineup includes several acclaimed titles, such as Holy Cow by Louise Courvoisier (winner of the 2025 César Awards for Best First Film and Best Female Revelation), Dahomey by Mati Diop (Golden Bear winner at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival), as well as timeless classics like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy.
Albertine Cinémathèque Grantees 2025-2026
ATLANTA AREA
Alabama:
University of South Alabama
Georgia:
Emory University
Kennesaw State University Research and Service Foundation
University of West Georgia
North Carolina:
Cape Fear Community College
Davidson College
Duke University
East Carolina University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
South Carolina:
University of South Carolina
Tennessee:
Middle Tennessee State University
BOSTON AREA
Massachusetts:
Boston University
Brandeis University
New Hampshire:
Dartmouth College
Vermont:
Middlebury College
CHICAGO AREA
Indiana:
Ball State University
University of Notre Dame
Kentucky:
Northern Kentucky University
Minnesota:
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University
Ohio:
Kent State University
The Ohio State University
Wisconsin:
Beloit College
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
WASHINGTON DC AREA
Maryland:
University of Maryland Baltimore County
University of Maryland Global Campus Europe
HOUSTON AREA
Arkansas:
University of Central Arkansas
Texas:
St. Edward’s University and Huston-Tillotson University
University of Texas at San Antonio
LOS ANGELES AREA
California:
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Northridge
Colorado:
University of Colorado Boulder
MIAMI AREA
Florida:
University of Florida
University of Tampa
NEW ORLEANS AREA
Louisiana:
Loyola University New Orleans
NEW YORK AREA
Connecticut:
Connecticut College
New Jersey:
Princeton University
New York:
Bard College
Columbia University
Cornell University
NYU – French Department
Vassar College
SAN FRANCISCO AREA
Hawai’i:
Hawai’i Pacific University
Idaho:
Boise State University
Congratulations to our Grantees and thank you to everyone who applied!
A special thank you to our dedicated University Committee members:
Anne Kern (SUNY Purchase College), Sam Di Iorio (CUNY Hunter College) and David Gerstner (CUNY College of Staten Island)
The next call for applications for the 2026–2027 academic year will open this fall. We strongly encourage all Members to (re)apply, and we look forward to continuing to support your inspiring film festivals.
Film Selection 2025-2026
Albertine Cinémathèque is thrilled to announce its Film Selection for 2025/2026 showcasing the best of French Cinema in the United States!
The Film Selection is composed of three distinctive parts:
— CONTEMPORARY FILMS
— ALTERNATIVE LIST
— CLASSIC FILMS
Albertine Cinémathèque provides US universities/colleges with a great selection of 22 contemporary films and 7 classics (including one short film) for French film festivals on US campuses. This selection highlights the dynamism and plurality of French Cinema represented by films by high profile filmmakers like Rithy Panh’s Meeting with Pol Pot and Francois Ozon’s When Fall is Coming, as well as films by acclaimed newcomers like Louise Courvoisier’s Holy Cow (Cesar for Best First Film and Best Female Revelation in 2025) and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light (Grand Prix at Cannes 2024).
This year’s selection includes many award-winning films such as Mati Diop’s documentary, Dahomey, a groundbreaking film about the restitution of the treasure of the kingdom of Dahomey to Benin which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024, and the animated film, Flow by Gints Zilbalodis, which won the Academy award for Best Animated Feature film this year.
Our classic film selection spotlights the work of the celebrated filmmaker, René Clair, with two of his films, The Beauty of the Devil and The Crazy Ray, and offers students the opportunity to discover some of the most iconic French films of all time: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy, Army of the Shadows by Jean-Pierre Melville and The Wages of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Partners & Sponsors
Albertine Cinémathèque is part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.
Albertine Cinémathèque is made possible by: Centre National du Cinema et de l’Image Animée (CNC)
Contact
Sandrine Neveux | Program Officer
sandrine.neveux@villa-albertine.org
In partnership with
Albertine Foundation
Previously known as FACE Foundation, Albertine Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In close partnership with Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education of the French Embassy in the United States, Albertine Foundation promotes artistic, literary, and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries thanks to corporate, foundation, and individual support.
Follow Albertine Foundation on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC)
Created in 1946, the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) is a public administrative organization, set up as a separate and financially independent entity which comes under the authority of the French ministry of culture and communication. Its principal missions are : support for the film, broadcast, video, video games, immersive productions and technical industries; promotion of film and television for distribution to all audiences and preservation and development of the film heritage.