The 2018 Festival du Film Français d'Helvétie will take place in Biel/Bienne from September 12 to 16 and in Bern from September 14 to 16—an opportunity to meet with around twenty festival guests and discover over fifty films shown in preview screenings.
This 14th edition of the festival held in the charming bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, which sits right on the boundary of French-speaking and German-speaking cultures, is also being held for three days in the Swiss capital of Bern.
As always, the five-day event will be dedicated to French-language films from France and Switzerland, and will showcase around fifty features and short films including numerous world premieres, such as In Safe Hands and Paris Pigalle. More than one half of the films programmed will thus be presented to audiences for the first time, either in Bienne or Berne, prior to their commercial release in their respective countries.
The festival is divided into four main sections. One of these is the Discovery section, which offers a selection of short films in competition and several French or French-language productions that have never been screened in Switzerland.
The festival program, put together in partnership with Swiss distributors and UniFrance, continues to give international exposure to French cinema and French artists. Among the actors and directors in attendance this year are Élodie Bouchez, Stéphane Brizé, Camille Chamoux, Pierre Deladonchamps, Philippe Faucon, Adèle Haenel, Jeanne Herry, Agnès Jaoui, Thomas Lilti, Pierre Salvadori, Guillaume Senez, and Mélanie Thierry.
This year's festival trailer (below) is an inventive montage of the best of past years' trailers, featuring Kacey Mottet Klein, Carlo Brandt, Patrick Bruel, Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Paul Rouve, and the Fiona Gordon/Dominique Abel duo. And, thrown in just for fun, you can also watch Patrick Bruel solo in the 2015 trailer and Ariane Ascaride in the 2016 trailer.
Further details about the festival can be found here.
All of the French films at the 2018 festival
Discovery Section
- Cléo & Paul by Stéphane Demoustier
- Kings for a Day by Xabi Molia
- Paris Pigalle by Cédric Anger
- The Prayer by Cédric Kahn
- To the Ends of the World by Guillaume Nicloux
- Dear Son by Mohamed Ben Attia
Discovery Section (Short Films)
- The Cornfield by Michaël Guerraz
- Ten Minutes Tops by Antoine de Bujadoux
- A New Life by Michael Zazoun
- Little White Dude by Tatiana Vialle, Swann Arlaud
- Laissez-moi danser by Valérie Leroy
Horizon Section
- Dogman by Matteo Garrone
- Everybody Knows by Asghar Farhadi
- The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir by Ken Scott
- The Summer House by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
- Dear Son by Mohamed Ben Attia
- Sofia by Meryem Benm'Barek
- A Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson
Podium Section
- At War by Stéphane Brizé
- With the Wind by Bettina Oberli
- Amin by Philippe Faucon
- The Trouble with You by Pierre Salvadori
- Place publique by Agnès Jaoui
- Our Struggles by Guillaume Senez
- Our Happy Holiday by Patrick Cassir
- The Freshmen by Thomas Lilti
- In Safe Hands by Jeanne Herry
Nocturne Section
