Guillaume Canet's performance in A Better Life by Cédric Kahn, which was hailed by the Italian media, earned him the Best Actor award. The director Claude Miller, who presented the other French film in competition, See How They Dance, was awarded the Jury Prize, with this year's jury led by Ennio Morricone. The Young Talent jury jointly honored Twiggy by Emmanuelle Millet and Circumstance by Maryam Keshavarz, a Franco-American co-production. The festival's artistic director Piera Detassis offered a diverse selection of 11 French titles this year, including Luc Besson's new film The Lady, which was screened as festival opener.

Eleven French films were screened at the event. The Woman in the Fifth by Pawel Pawlikovski, My Worst Nightmare by Anne Fontaine, A Better Life by Cédric Kahn, and See How They Dance by Claude Miller featured in the official competition. Twiggy by Emmanuelle Millet, Le diable dans la peau by Gilles Martinerie, Kids' Stories by Siegfried, The War of the Buttons II by Christophe Barratier, and No and Me by Zabou Breitman were presented in the Young Talent section. Sleepless Night by Frédéric Jardin was screened in a special section.

Anne Fontaine, Isabelle Huppert, Christophe Barratier, Luc Besson, Cédric Kahn, Claude Miller, Pawel Pawlikowski, Frédéric Jardin, and Tomer Sisley were in Rome to present their films.

A Film Market was held as a festival sidebar, at which Italian distributors worked side by side with French sales agents.