Alliance Française French Film Festival announces 2026 program
The largest festival dedicated to contemporary French films outside of France, The Alliance Française French Film Festival 2026 is set to return to Western Australia this Autumn.
Running from Thursday, March 12, until Wednesday, April 15 at Palace Cinemas Raine Square, Luna Leederville, Windsor Cinema and Luna on SX, on top of screenings at Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre (BREC) from Wednesday, March 25 to Sunday, March 29; the festival will be showcasing a wide variety of some of the newest and highly acclaimed French-language cinema on offer.
Opening this year’s festival will be Cédric Klapisch’s acclaimed La Venue de l’Avenir (Colours of time), a playful homage to France’s rich artistic heritage and changing social mores. Starring Suzanne Lindon, Vincent Macaigne, Cécile de France and Paul Kircher, the comedic drama follows the lives of cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and retrace the steps of their ancestors in 19th-century Paris.
The festival’s lineup features ten films directed by female filmmakers with acclaimed French actors including Isabelle Huppert in La Femme la Plus Riche du Monde (The Richest Woman in the World) and Laure Calamy in Classe Moyenne (The Party’s Over!) and C’est quoi l’Amour? (What is Love?), plus newcomers Amélie Bonnin with Partir un Jour (Leave One Day) and Enya Baroux in On Ira (Bon Voyage, Marie).
Adding to the program’s lineup of female filmmakers will be Julia Ducournau’s striking Alpha, Cannes favourite La Petite Dernière (The Little Sister), a coming-of-age drama by Hafsia Herzi featuring Nadia Melliti; Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vieprivée (A Private Life) showcasing Jodie Foster in her first French language leading role; La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower), directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović and starring Marion Cotillard; and Barbara Schulz’s Le Secret de Khéops (Treasure Hunters: On the Tracks of Khufu).
Direct from the Croisette will also be Cannes Film Festival stand-outs L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche (The Great Arch), the story of Otto von Spreckelsen, a real-life architecture teacher from Copenhagen who surprised the world when he won an open-call competition to design the Great Arch of La Défense; French coming-of-age drama Enzo; a crime drama Dossier 137 (Case 137) co-written and directed by Dominik Moll, starring Léa Drucker; and animation from filmmakers Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han Amélie et la Métaphysique des Tubes (Little Amelie or the Character of Rain).
The Festival’s much-loved showcase screening events including the ‘Centrepiece’ premiere of La Femme la Plus Riche du Monde; ‘Taste of France’ selection La Réparation (Redress) from Oscar winner Régis Wargnier; ‘Classic Movie’, Un Homme et une Femme (A Man and a Woman), a timeless masterpiece directed by Claude Lelouch and starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant; and ‘Ladies Night’ French time-travel comedy showcase C’était Mieux Demain (Cycle of Time).
Joining the already announced headliner titles of Jean Valjean, L’étranger (The Stranger), C’est quoi l’Amour? (What is Love?), Coutures (Couture), Chien 51 (Dog 51) and Classe Moyenne (The Party’s Over!), will be drama Six jours, Ce Printemps-là (Six Days in Spring), the 11th feature film from Joachim Lafosse; plus Carlos Abascal Peiro’s most recent film, Fils de (The Son Of) starring Jean Chevalier, Karin Viard, François Cluzet, Emilie—Kahn and Alex Lutz; and Dominique Baumard’s Les Règles de l’Art (The French Job), a French crime comedy inspired by the 2010 theft of five masterpieces from Paris’ Museum of Modern Art.
Maigret et le Mort Amoureux (Maigret and the Dead Lover) based on the 1960 novel Maigret et les Vieillards by Georges Simenon will also be included along with; Grégory Magne’s Les Musiciens (The Musicians); dramedy Une Pointe d’Amour (A Dash of Love); L’affaire Bojarski (The Money Maker), a counterfeit thriller starring Reda Kateb; À Bicyclette (Ride Away), directed by and starring Mathias Mlekuz with Philippe Rebbot; and 13 Jours, 13 Nuits (13 Days, 13 Nights), a thriller based on the true story of France’s successful attempt to get its own nationals, plus hundreds of Afghan citizens, out of Kabul in August 2021.
Making up the program are Frédéric Quiring’s daring comedy Doux Jésus (A Nun in the City); Il était une Fois Michel Legrand (Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand), a documentary on one of France’s greatest composers, Oscar-winner Michel Legrand; comedy T’as Pas Changé (Class Reunion), a bittersweet and hilarious tribute to the 1990s; Yann Gozlan’s psychological thriller, Gourou (Guru) starring Pierre Niney and Holt McCallany; writer-director Nathan Ambrosioni’s gripping Les Enfants vont Bien (Out of Love); and comedy Le Routard (The Rookie Guide), from director Philippe
Mechelen.
Finally, closing the festival will be Johann Dionnet’s Avignon (Rodrigue In Love), a romantic comedy set in the heart of the country’s most famous theatre festival, Avignon, and starring Baptiste Lecaplain, Alison Wheeler and Lyès Salem.
The 2026 Alliance Française French Film Festival is screening at Palace Cinemas Raine Square, Luna Leederville, Windsor Cinema and Luna on SX from Thursday, March 12, until Wednesday, April 15, 2026; and Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre (BREC) from Wednesday, March 25 to Sunday, March 29, 2026. Tickets are on sale Thursday, February 5 from affrenchfilmfestival.org