Young French Cinema 2024

New York, January 9, 2024 – Villa Albertine and Unifrance announced today the official selection for the 10th edition of the Young French Cinema program. Designed to support films without existing US distribution, Young French Cinema brings the work of emerging French filmmakers to audiences across the United States. The 2024 program is now available for booking by art house cinemas, film societies, the Alliance Française network, and American universities. 

In collaboration with Unifrance, Young French Cinema is one of 15 professional programs from Villa Albertine, a new cultural institution working across disciplines and continents to build a vibrant community of arts and ideas. In this spirit, Young French Cinema offers a selection of today’s best films and filmmakers, who have continually been singled out for praise by the international press. Most of the films selected in this program have premiered at top international festivals. Six of them were selected at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, while others were presented at the TIFF, Telluride, London, Locarno and Tribeca festivals. Out of the ten feature films, nine are directed by women.

The program mainly focuses on rising talents, from high-profile independent works to impactful dramas and powerful documentaries about the world around us. The 2024 selection demonstrates that this young generation—more than ever—shares a global vision and an amazing capacity to combine cultural influences and tackle an incredibly wide range of subject matters.

Read more on Deadline and Unifrance.

THE 2024 SELECTION

Ama Gloria by Marie Amachoukeli

Six-year-old Cléo loves her nanny Gloria more than anything. When Gloria must suddenly return to Cape Verde to care for her own children, Cléo makes her promise that they will see each other very soon. Gloria invites Cléo to her island and the two must make the most of their last summer together.

84 min
Genre: Fiction, Comedy drama
Cast: Louise Mauroy-Panzani, Ilça Moreno Zego
Main Festivals: Cannes FF

Caiti Blues by Justine Harbonnier

Caiti Lord has a beautiful voice that she plans to use to do more than sell cherry cocktails. As madness surges in the United States, in a most disturbing absurd manner, Caiti is overtaken by a growing sense of suffocation. So Caiti sings. The blues.

84 min
Genre: Documentary
Main Festivals: Cannes FF – ACID, Visions du Reel

No Love Lost by Erwann Le Duc

Étienne is barely twenty when he falls in love with Valérie. They are hardly any more when their daughter Rosa is born. And then, one day, Valérie leaves and never returns. He chooses not to make a drama of it and builds a happy life for him and his child. Sixteen years later, when Rosa is about to lead her own life, Étienne recognizes his wife on television. The past brutally resurfaces, and father and daughter are propelled into one last chaotic family journey.

91 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Céleste Brunnquell, Maud Wyler
Main Festivals: Cannes FF – Critics Week

Sisterhood by Nora El Hourch

Despite their different social backgrounds, Amina, Djeneba, and Zineb have been friends for as long as they can remember. When Zineb experiences harassment from her brother’s best friend, Amina decides to post a compromising video of him on social media, hoping he will stop. Little does she know that the video will not only jeopardize her safety, but also strain their friendship.

100 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Léah Aubert, Salma Takaline, Medina Diarra
Main Festivals: TIFF

Little Girl Blue by Mona Achache

After her mother’s death, Mona Achache discovers thousands of photos, letters, and recordings, but these buried secrets make her disappearance even more of an enigma. Through the power of filmmaking and the beauty of incarnation, she brings her mother back to life to retrace her journey and find out who she really was.

95 min
Genre: Documentary
Cast: Marion Cotillard
Main Festivals: Cannes FF, Telluride, London

Marinette by Virginie Verrier

Marinette Pichon is one of the world’s greatest stars of football, having held the record for the most number of goals and caps for the French team (men/women combined) for almost two decades, before becoming a FIFA Legend by being the first French player to have a career in the US. A pioneer of French women’s soccer, the film follows her fight to spread awareness on women’s rights in sport. A path full of pitfalls, from a childhood ravaged by an alcoholic and violent father to the heavy burden of coming out in an era where LGBTQ+ rights were non-existent. Her success in sport will fuel her desire to make a difference in the recognition of French women’s soccer, homosexuality, and equal opportunity. It is the story of a woman’s life, a fighter, an uncompromising ode to freedom, to surpassing oneself.

95 min
Genre: Biopic, LGBTQ
Cast: Garance Marillier, Emilie Dequenne, Alban Lenoir
Main Festivals: Tribeca Film Festival

First Case by Victoria Musiedlak

Nora, a 26-year-old lawyer fresh out of law school, has the impression that she doesn’t have any real life experience when she finds herself thrown into her first criminal law case. From her initial meeting with her client in police custody and throughout the investigation, Nora discovers the cruelty of the world that surrounds her private and professional lives. Quickly carried away by the frenzy of her new life, she starts making mistake after mistake, leading her to wonder about her life choices.

98 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Noée Abita, Anders Danielsen Lie, Alexis Neises
Main Festivals: Locarno FF

The Rapture by Iris Kaltenbäck

Lydia, a midwife highly invested in her career, has completely lost control of her life. Was it due to heartbreak, her best friend Salomé’s pregnancy, or meeting Milos, with whom she could have a potential new relationship ? Lydia gets stuck in a spiral of lies in which everyone’s lives are turned upside down.

97 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Hafsia Herzi, Alexis Manenti, Nina Meurisse
Main Festivals: Cannes FF – Critics’ Week

All To Play For by Delphine Deloget

Sylvie lives in Brest with her two children, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques. Together they form a tight, happy family. One night, Sofiane hurts himself, alone in the apartment while his mother is out at work. The incident is reported and Sofiane is placed in foster care.

112 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Virginie Efira, India Hair, Mathieu Demy
Main Festivals: Cannes FF – Un Certain Regard

Spirit of Ecstasy by Héléna Klotz

Jeanne is 24 years old. She lives on a military base with her father, a police officer, and her little brother and sister. She’s determined to make it in the world of finance. Not for the glory or wealth, but because it’s leading her on the path to freedom.

95 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama
Cast: Claire Pommet, Niels Schneider, Sofiane Zermani
Main Festivals: TIFF

This year, Young French Cinema includes the 7th season of Quartiers Lointains, a touring, short film program featuring PanAfrican and French multicultural filmmakers from all corners of the Francophone world.

Founded by French-Burkinabè film critic and distributor Claire Diao, this year’s edition, under the patronage of director and former Villa Albertine resident Alice Diop, focuses on the African diaspora’s Métamorphose(s):

“How can we best exist in societies that are both our own and yet others? How to best navigate institutions that are not always equipped to deal with the issues we face? How to find mystical or rational remedies to heal our wounds? These are questions that traverse the African diaspora. From transformations that lead people in exile to adapt to new cultures to subjects that are often minimized and rarely represented on the screen. Captured in documentary, animation, and fiction short films, our seventh season shines a light on these physical and psychic metamorphosis.“

Quartiers Lointains 7^th season line-up:

Land of Shadows by Fatima Kaci

Lost in the middle of an industrial zone in the working-class suburbs of Paris, Bobigny’s Muslim cemetery, a plot dating back to the colonial era, mixes different worlds and temporalities. Fatima Kaci sets out to discover the rituals, voices, and presences of its visitors. In the woven-together voices and troughs of silence, glimpses of a shared Franco-Algerian memory come to light.

38 min
Genre: Documentary

On the Surface by Fan Sissoko

A young Black women goes swimming in the Iceland Sea and meditates on raising a child in a country where she remains a foreigner. As she enters the icy waters, she relives periods of her traumatic pregnancy and postnatal depression before her swimming becomes more fluid. Surrounded by nature where she faces her fears, she can now embark on a process of healing her wounds.

4 min
Genre: Animation
Cast: Enid Mbabazi

Air Bubble by Daouda Diakhate

After a long stay in psychiatric hospital, thirty-year-old Omar returns to the neighborhood where he lives with his father and little sister. All he is interested in is news of Ania, his ex-girlfriend.

31 min
Genre: Fiction, Psychological drama
Cast: Mahamadou Coulibaly, Soufiane Guerrab, Cheikh Sow, Dieyna Yameogo

Anansi by Aude N’guessan Forget

Eden, an Afro hairdresser, tries to simply get over her recurrent stomach pains. Not really heard by the doctors, she tries to find a remedy herself. But when the pain gets too great to bear, her daily life become impossible.

20 min
Genre: Fiction, Drama, Romance
Cast: Chanel Victor, Marie-Solange Oussou, Aline Belibi

YFC 2024 GUIDELINES

Young French Cinema is available to U.S. art house cinemas, film societies, the Alliance Française network and universities. Part of the selection may be available in Canada too.

Film Selection: The program includes 10 feature films, and four shorts. All the selected features premiered in major international film festivals in 2023, including Cannes, Locarno, TIFF…

All films can be booked à la carte: there is no minimum or maximum number of films that you must choose. In the event that you are showing more than three films from the program as a festival or series, that festival/series should be named “YOUNG FRENCH CINEMA”.

Fees: Each feature film in the 2024 program is available for a $300 booking fee for up to two screenings per film. Fees are paid either directly to the rightsholder (if only one film is booked) or to Unifrance (if more than 2 films are booked) who then reimburse the rights-holders. Please note that outgoing shipping costs are to be paid by each organization.

The Quartiers Lointains series comes as a bundle. Please contact us for further information about the screening fees and shipping costs.

Format: All films are available in DCP, provided by DCU on hard drive or via electronic/download delivery.

Timeline: All film inquiries must be sent at least four weeks before the screening date and addressed to Adeline Monzier, Anne Takahashi and Sandrine Neveux. Unifrance will be the third party between you and the rights-holder in France.

Publicity: All publicity materials must include the following credit line: “This Young French Cinema program was made possible with the support of Unifrance and Villa Albertine – French Embassy in the United States.“

Talents: Venues that would like to organize an in-person discussion/masterclass with the director/actors of one of the films shown can apply for a travel grant to fly the artist to the U.S. Please send us an email with your request and be as detailed as possible about your proposed event. Unifrance will consider your application and if positive, facilitate the contact with the artist. 

Contact:

Sandrine NEVEUX, Villa Albertine – Film Program Officer
+1 (415) 254-8694 / sandrine.neveux@villa-albertine.org

Adeline MONZIER, UniFrance – USA Representative
+1 (646) 422-9348 / adeline.monzier@unifrance.org

Anne TAKAHASHI, UniFrance – USA Representative
+1 (917) 825-4340 / anne.takahashi@unifrance.org