Australia’s leading French Film festival is launching in Perth on March 13, and over 5 weeks is showing 42 extraordinary French films at 4 magical Perth cinemas including: the Palace in the Perth CBD, Luna in Leederville, Luna in Freo and the Windsor in Nedlands.
The festival will also run regionally in Bunbury at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre from April 10 – 13.
Now in its 36th year, the festival remains the largest celebration of French Film outside France, with over 188 000 film lovers in attendance last year.
We researched all 42 movies and based on reviews, awards and the Film Festival directors’ recommendations, have picked the top 10 not-to-be-missed. All films and trailers can be viewed on the Localista Festival Guide.
Tickets are on sale, so book now to avoid missing out!
The Top 10 Films
1. My Brother’s Band
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 13
A sensation at Cannes and one of Franceʼs biggest box office and audience favourites of the year (achieving over two million admissions and entry into the top five of 2024), writer/director Emmanuel Courcol’s wildly entertaining new film follows two very different siblings separated by fate and reunited by their love of music. An eruptive crowd favourite wherever it has premiered (notably receiving the highest audience score in the 51-year history of the San Sebastian Film Festival), MY BROTHER’S BAND is a rousing, feel-great trip to the cinema, expertly striking the perfect harmony between laughter and tears. Bring your family, your friends, and some tissues.
2. Monsieur Aznavour
Date: Mar 13 – Apr 15
Just as Marion Cotillard was to La Vie en Rose, Golden Globe-nominated actor Tahar Rahim is to MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR, transforming into the iconic singer/songwriter for this lavishly entertaining rise-to-stardom biography of the man who beat all odds to not only become one of France’s best-loved entertainers, but personified French culture to the rest of the world. Led by its starʼs astonishing performance and stunning vocal prowess, MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR is a true tour de force – as intimate as it is spectacular – and serves as a triumphant reminder of the power and impact of music. Don’t miss one of France’s biggest hits of the year.
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
Date: Mar 15 – Apr 6
Pierre Niney leads a stellar cast in Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s thrilling new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ epic adventure, the first French cinematic treatment of the iconic tale of romance and redemption in over fifty years. A true cultural phenomenon in France (where it stormed the box office with close to 10 million tickets sold), THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO delivers luxurious, spectacular big-screen entertainment, at once timeless and electrifyingly new.
4. All Stirred Up!
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 16
This feast of a comedy from director Manon Briand, follows an intractable customs officer, a charming but down-on-his-luck French chef from New York, and a young girl who enters a Mini Chefs competition to stick it to her bullies. Set in the beautiful Canadian countryside and replete with mouthwatering dishes, ALL STIRRED UP! is a deliciously heartwarming story, full of laughs and touching connections that will leave you hungry for more.
5. Beating Hearts
Date: Mar 15 – Apr 14
Love makes one crazy. Just ask Clotaire (Civil) and Jackie (Exarchopoulos), who meet in their teens in their Northern France working-class neighbourhood in the 1980s. But tragedy soon pulls them apart. A decade later, Clotaire tries desperately to win back his lost love. Has his chance passed?
The phenomenal Adèle Exarchopoulos and François Civil – arguably French cinema’s brightest young talents – devour the screen in Gilles Lellouche’s vibrant, genre-spanning romantic epic that follows a written-in-the-stars infatuation tested by social boundaries, betrayal and circumstances beyond all control.
6. My Everything
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 14
After establishing herself as one of France’s most popular and successful comediennes, the multi-talented Laure Calamy follows Full Time, AF FFF22, with another dramatic tour-de-force in writer/director Anne-Sophie Bailly’s deeply affecting debut. Emotionally involving and honest, Bailly’s debut feature offers a moving observation of caregiving, inter-dependence and how society treats the rights of the most fragile. With Calamy excelling alongside her impressive non-professional co-stars, MY EVERYTHING is a stirring and resonant story of motherhood, compassion and acceptance.
7. Bolero
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 16
Every 15 minutes, someone somewhere in the world plays Ravel’s “Bolero” – it’s a legacy its artist could never have imagined. A tribute to the timelessness of the composer’s haunting masterpiece, Bolero, writer-director Anne Fontaine takes us on a deconstructed, elliptical journey through the idiosyncratic life of Maurice Ravel, via his struggle to complete that 17-minute piece of music. Premiering at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, BOLERO is a celebration of a classical genius.’
8. The Deluge
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 16
The remarkable Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet take centre stage in writer-director Gianluca Jodice’s transfixing historical drama, evocatively depicting the last days of the French Revolution and the fates of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Drawn from the diaries of Louis XVI’s personal valet, this exceptionally crafted drama features not only marvellous production design and cinematography, but incredible costumes by twice Oscar-nominated designer Massimo Cantini Parrini.
9. The Thread
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 16
One of France’s most beloved and awarded actors, the remarkable Daniel Auteuil is also an accomplished writer and director (The Well-Digger’s Daughter), and this engrossing new legal thriller finds him once again in outstanding form. Auteuil stars as Jean Monier, a well-past his prime defence lawyer who – ever since discovering he was responsible for a killer being exonerated – prefers to work as a prosecutor. But one evening he agrees to help his over-committed wife and fellow counsel Annie by meeting with Nicolas Milik, a shell-shocked father of five who has just been arrested for the murder of his troubled wife.
10. The Good Teacher
Date: Mar 14 – Apr 16
Inspired by true events, Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s gripping new morality thriller – co-written by Venice Golden Bear winner Audrey Diwan – stars the exceptional François Civil (The Three Musketeers) as a dedicated young educator whose world is upended when he is accused of misconduct by one of his students. Set within the microcosm of the school, but reflective of wider society, Lussi-Modeste’s enthralling, nuanced and conversation-starting film is an intelligent and highly believable exploration of the complexities of human behaviour in the post #MeToo era.
