French cinema at the Cannes Film Festival 2019

French cinema remains, year after year, a major reference on the world film map, and Cannes maintains its role as a launching pad – whether for international or French cinema – for the year ahead. The festival is also once again the sounding board for French coproductions: nearly 30 majority or minority coproductions have been selected this year, which is very important on a global scale. The world's greatest film festival is hence the ideal place to take stock of France's presence, more vibrant and open than ever.

This year, 7 French or majority-French films are in Competition within the Official Selection, among which the selection's only debut feature (Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story by Mati Diop), and 3 films directed by women (Mati Diop, Céline Sciamma and Justine Triet).

All the French films (of French coproductions) presented in the four Cannes sections

( * = films with French coproduction contributions, awaiting CNC approval)

Official Selection

Competition:

• Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story by Mati Diop
• Mektoub, My Love : Intermezzo by Abdellatif Kechiche
• Les Misérables by Ladj Ly
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma
• Oh Mercy! by Arnaud Desplechin
• Sibyl by Justine Triet
• Frankie by Ira Sachs
• Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles (minority)
• Young Ahmed by Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne (minority)
• The Whistlers by Corneliu Porumboiu (minority)
• Sorry We Missed You by Ken Loach (minority)
• The Traitor by Marco Bellocchio (minority)
• The Wild Goose Lake by Yinan Diao *
• It Must Be Heaven by Elia Suleiman *

Out of Competition:

• La Belle Epoque by Nicolas Bedos
• The Best Years of a Life by Claude Lelouch
• The Specials, de Éric Toledano & Olivier Nakache (Last Screening)

Special Screenings:

• Living and Knowing You're Alive by Alain Cavalier
• The Cordillera of Dreams by Patricio Guzmán

Midnight Screenings:

• Lux Æterna by Gaspar Noé

Un Certain Regard:

• Joan of Arc by Bruno Dumont
• Fire Will Come by Oliver Laxe
• The Bears' Famous Invasion by Lorenzo Mattotti
• On a Magical Night by Christophe Honoré
• Liberté by Albert Serra
• The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman, Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec
• Papicha by Mounia Meddour
• Port Authority by Danielle Lessovitz *
• Adam, by Maryam Touzani *

Short Films - Official Selection:

• The Van by Erenik Beqiri
• And then the Bear by Agnès Patron
• The Distance Between Us and the Sky by Vasilis Kekatos
• The Jump by Nicolas Davenel, Vanessa Dumont

Short Films - Cinéfondation:

• Mano a Mano by Louise Courvoisier
• Rosso: A True Lie About a Fisherman by Antonio Messana

Directors' Fortnight

Official Selection

• Deerskin by Quentin Dupieux
• Alice and the Mayor by Nicolas Pariser
• An Easy Girl by Rebecca Zlotowski
• Zombi Child by Bertrand Bonello
• The Bare Necessity by Erwan Le Duc
• Blow It to Bits, de Lech Kowalski
• Particles by Blaise Harrison
• All About Yves by Benoît Forgeard
• Oleg de Juris Kursietis (minority)
• The Orphanage by Shahrbanoo Sadat *
• Sick, Sick, Sick by Alice Furtado *
• Tlamess by Ala Eddine Slim *
• To Live to Sing by Johnny Ma *
• And Then We Danced by Levan Akin *

Short Films

• Two Sisters Who Are Not Sisters by Beatrice Gibson
• The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady by Gabriel Abrantes
• Olla by Ariane Labed
• Ghost Pleasure by Morgan Simon

Critics' Week

Feature Films

• I Lost My Body by Jérémy Clapin
• The Unknown Saint by Alaa Eddine Aljem (minority)
• Our Mothers by César Díaz *
• Abou Leila by Amin Sidi-Boumédiène *
• Land of Ashes by Sofía Quirós Ubeda *

Opening Film

• Litigante by Franco Lolli *

Special Screenings

• You Deserve a Lover by Hafsia Herzi
• Heroes Don't Die by Aude Léa Rapin

Short Films

• Journey Through a Body by Camille Degeye
• Lucía en el limbo by Valentina Maurel
• Tuesday from 8 to 6 by Cecilia de Arce
• She Runs by Qiu Yang

Short Film - Special Screening

• Invisible Hero by Cristèle Alves Meira

ACID

Programmation

• Des hommes by Alice Odiot, Jean-Robert Viallet
• Fugue by Artemio Benki
• Blind Spot by Pierre Trividic, Patrick Mario Bernard
• As Happy As Possible by Alain Raoust
• Kongo by Hadrien La Vapeur
• Burning Ghost by Stéphane Batut