Four French films in Competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival

22 AUGUST 2024

Four French will represent France in Competition at the Venice International Film Festival. Four films by six filmmakers, two of them siblings!

Find out all about the French presence at this year's event, which takes place from August 28 to September 7.

While the duos Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma on the one hand, and Muriel and Delphine Coulin on the other, have never been in Competition in Venice, Wang Bing had the honor of competing in 2010 with his drama The Ditch. As for Emmanuel Mouret, he presented Shall We Kiss in the Giornate degli Autori section in 2007.

All six will be flying the French colors in Competition at Venice this year, a French presence to be complemented by the many minority-French co-productions alongside films by international filmmakers, including Walter Salles, Dea Kulumbegashvili, and Athina Rachel Tsangari.

And Their Children After Them by Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma is the adaptation of the eponymous novel by Nicolas Mathieu (Prix Goncourt 2018), an immersive fresco set in eastern France, and starring Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier.

And Their Children After Them

The Quiet Son by Muriel and Delphine Coulin, who first drew attention with their debut feature The Stopover in 2015, follows a father and family man (Vincent Lindon) confronted with the extremist drift of one of his sons.

The Quiet Son

Three Friends by Emmanuel Mouret features three women (played by Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier, and India Hair), and their criss-crossing love affairs.

Three Friends

Last but not least, Youth (Homecoming) concludes Wang Bing's trilogy devoted to contemporary Chinese youth, in which the director returns to the textile workshops of the first part, then films a wedding. This is the third installment of his trilogy – a French-majority co-production – the first of which (Youth (Spring)) was in Competition at Cannes in 2023, and the second, Youth (Hard Times), was presented in Competition in Locarno 2024.

Youth (Homecoming)

This fine quartet of films will be completed, Out of Competition, by Claude Lelouch's latest feature At the End of The Day, starring Kad Merad in the lead role. The film director will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award for his long and distinguished career.

Also Out of Competition: the Franco-Romanian documentary Things We Said Today by Andrei Ujica (a majority-French co-production) and the minority-French co-productions by Amos Gitaï, Cristina Comencini, and Fabrice Du Welz, who is back with the intriguing thriller Le Dossier Maldoror starring Anthony Bajon.

Three French films (or majority-French co-productions) will be presented in the Orizzonti strand: new films by Carine Tardieu, Mehdi M. Barsaoui (who first captured attention with A Son in 2019), and the debut feature by Anne-Sophie Bailly, My Everything, starring Laure Calamy in the role of a mother with a disabled son.

The soul of French cinema will also be present and personified by Isabelle Huppert, president of the Competition jury.

Venice Immersive

Unifrance will host a meeting on XR Island on August 30 at 2pm, during which the 11 works selected for Venice Immersive will be presented.
The report concerning the export of French immersive works in 2023 will also be released.
Last but not least, the French ambassador to Italy, Martin Briens, accompanied by audiovisual attaché Rémi Guittet, will announce the winner of the 3rd edition of the XR Farnese-Médicis Residency.
This speech will be followed by a cocktail reception from 3:30pm to 5pm.

--> The full official line-up can be found here

The French artistic delegation

The following people are already expected to attend this year's event (subject to change): Isabelle Huppert, Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Sayyid El Alami, Gilles Lellouche, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Memmi, Nicolas Mathieu, Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin, Vincent Lindon, Benjamin Voisin, Stefan Crepon, Claude Lelouch, Kad Merad, Elsa Zylberstein, Michel Boujenah, Barbara Pravi, Françoise Gillard, Anne-Sophie Bailly, Laure Calamy, Charles Peccia-Galletto, Julie Froger, Aude Léa Rapin, Souheila Yacoub, Eliane Umuhire, India Hair, Bertrand Bonello

Semaine de la Critique

Like last year, the 39th Semaine de la Critique will open and close with two French films. Opening is Aude Léa Rapin's long-awaited new film Planet B, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos, and closing is Lawrence Valin's debut Little Jaffna, set in Paris's Indian quarter, in the 10th arrondissement.

In selection, La Semaine audiences will be able to discover Perfumed with Mint, the first feature film by Egyptian cinematographer Muhammed Hamdy, co-produced for France by Supernova Films.

--> The full Semaine de la Critique line-up can be found here

Giornati degli Autori

Giornati degli Autori, Venice's last sidebar, will feature in its 21st edition Selon Joy, Camille Lugan's first feature film, which follows the intersecting destinies of Joy and Andriy, in a gray city with no past. Sudan, Remember Us by Hind Meddeb is a documentary about the Sudanese revolution of 2019, putting an end to 30 years of military dictatorship. French documentary filmmaker Marie Losier will present Peaches Goes Bananas, a new portrait of an extraordinary musical figure, that of American musician Peaches, a feminist and queer icon.

Peaches Goes Bananas