After fifteen editions shining a spotlight on emerging French-language cinema for millions of viewers around the world, MyFrenchFilmFestival, the online festival created by Unifrance, will embark on a transition year in 2026.
The festival is reinventing itself and will return in 2027 with a reimagined format better suited to evolving viewer habits and the rapid changes in the VOD market over the past 15 years.
Meanwhile, Unifrance will offer in 2026 a full Best-of year dedicated entirely to short films, one of the festival’s defining features, and a format that has brought together a large and loyal community of cinephiles from across the globe.
The 2026 lineup, presented throughout the year in three themed highlights, will feature a selection of nine emblematic short films. This selection brings together works that have won awards throughout the festival’s history, as well as those most watched and celebrated by international audiences. These films reflect the diversity of voices and styles in contemporary French-language cinema.
Best-of Shorts – MyFrenchFilmFestival 2026
Three programs, nine films, one year of cinema
Each season, which will feature three short films, will be available for three months. The films will be accessible on YouTube and TV5MONDE+.
Season 1. Unexpected Encounters (February–May 2026)
Three stories where love emerges where least expected—between rivalry, fantasy, and intimate road-movie.
- Miss Chazelles by Thomas Vernay – 21 mins
- No Drowning by Mélanie Laleu – 18 mins
- Paloma by Hugo Bardin – 28 mins
Season 2. Life as Fiction (May–August 2026)
Three variations on the power of storytelling—between reinvented reality, historical parody, and collective hallucination.
- Chasse royale by Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret – 28 mins
- The Glorious Acceptance of Nicolas Chauvin by Benjamin Crotty – 26 mins
- Long Live the Emperor by Aude Léa Rapin – 25 mins
Season 3. Tomorrow Starts Here (September–December 2026)
At the dawn of adulthood, three sensitive tales about leaving childhood behind and reinventing oneself.
- Birth of a Leader by Antoine De Bary – 14 mins
- The Summer Holidays by Valentine Cadic – 25 mins
- King David by Lila Pinell – 42 mins
Towards a new era for MyFrenchFilmFestival
Alongside this Best-of edition, 2026 will give Unifrance an opportunity to thoroughly rethink the model of an event that, since its creation in 2011, has aimed to make the best of contemporary French-language cinema accessible worldwide, even to viewers far from traditional distribution circuits, while offering exceptional visibility to works that sometimes had limited circulation.
At a time when VOD platforms have strengthened their presence and built massive user bases, and as the VOD offering continues to expand, Unifrance is reassessing all aspects of the festival (editorial direction, distribution model, marketing and press strategy, periodicity and schedule) to better account for new audience habits and expectations.
This new system for showcasing and promoting French and French-language works internationally will return in 2027 in an optimized and updated form. It will be redesigned in its structure, its level of engagement, and its international ambitions, to better meet the expectations of audiences around the world. It will also be aligned with Unifrance’s goals and strategy for reaching all audiences, as well as with the ambitious editorial approach we have been developing for the past three years across our social media platforms and our YouTube channel to highlight French creativity year-round.
