20th IFI FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL OPENS TONIGHT!

November 13th 2019: The 2019 IFI French Film Festival, the event’s 20th anniversary edition, opens at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) tonight. Ireland’s largest French cultural event, which features 24 Irish premieres, will run for twelve days until next Sunday, November 24th. The festival will open with a sold out gala screening of Céline Sciamma’s critically acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Director Cédric Klapisch will visit the festival tomorrow evening to take part in a sold out Q&A following the Irish premiere of Someone, Somewhere. The full programme and tickets are available from www.ifi.ie/frenchfest.

Other guests scheduled to appear include actor Vincent Macaigne, who will take part in Q&As following screenings of Cédric Kahn’s Happy Birthday and Anne Fontaine’s Pure As Snow on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th respectively. Journalist and writer Bayon, founder of The Music Section (1981), Arts Editor (2010-2014) at the French newspaper Libération, and co-scriptwriter of music documentary Oh, les filles! will visit the festival on Thursday 21st.

A particularly strong representation of female filmmakers this year includes new films from Lucie Borteleau (Lullaby), Justine Triet (Sibyl), and Manele Labidi Labbé (Arab Blues). The festival will also feature a special tribute to pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968). Guy-Blaché’s shorts will screen throughout the festival, while Pamela B. Green’s Be Natural, a new documentary about Guy-Blaché narrated by Jodie Foster, will receive its Irish premiere on Sunday 24th.

Other highlights of this year’s festival include Arnaud Desplechin’s tough crime drama Oh Mercy!; André Téchiné’s Farewell to the Night which focuses on a family’s battle with Islamic fundamentalism and stars Catherine Deneuve; Mikhaël Hers’s touching family drama Amanda; Louis-Julien Petit’s heartwarming social comedy Invisibles; Safy Nebbou’s Who You Think I Am, starring Juliette Binoche; Stéphane Demoustier’s courtroom drama The Girl with a Bracelet; two sold out screenings of La Belle Époque starring Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardent, which also opens at the IFI on Friday 22nd; and for younger film fans, our IFI Family screening on Sunday 24th is Ailo’s Journey.

This year’s retrospective focuses on the work of Claude Sautet, whose carefully crafted dramas were huge successes both at home and abroad. The four films chosen as part of the focus are: Danger Ahead (Classe Tous Risques), which sees a gangster on the run journeying home to his family; The Things of Life, a masterfully crafted melodrama which sees an architect reflect back on his life; Vincent, François, Paul and the Others, the biggest public success of Sautet’s career, filmed during the 1974 French presidential campaign, reflects an era of men’s turmoil and female emancipation; and A Heart in Winter, Sautet’s touching love triangle drama starring Emmanuelle Béart. The retrospective is supported by Institut Français Paris and the Embassy of France in Ireland.

Tickets for the IFI French Film Festival are now on sale from the IFI Box Office on 01-6793477 and from www.ifi.ie/frenchfest. Individual screening tickets cost €11.50. Multi-ticket packages are also available for 5 and 10 films, priced at €50 and €90 respectively, only from the IFI Box Office – terms and conditions apply.

For further information, interview availability, and high-res images, please contact Frances Wilde (fwilde@irishfilm.ie) at the IFI Press Office – (01) 6795744.

The IFI French Film Festival is supported by Airbus, Brooks Hotel, The Irish Times, RTÉ Supporting the Arts, Alliance Française Dublin, Europa Cinemas, Unifrance, Institut Français, and the Embassy of France in Ireland.

IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.

ENDS

FULL SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, November 13th
20.00 Portrait of a Lady on Fire – SOLD OUT

Thursday, November 14th
16.00 Invisibles
18.10 Someone, Somewhere + Q&A with Cédric Klapisch – SOLD OUT
20.45 La Belle Époque – SOLD OUT

Friday, November 15th
16.00 Farewell to the Night
18.15 Oh Mercy!
20.40 Lullaby

Saturday, November 16th
13.30 Claude Sautet: Danger Ahead (Classe tous risques)
13.40 Burning Ghost
15.50 Sibyl
18.00 Arab Blues
20.30 Happy Birthday + Q&A with Vincent Macaigne

Sunday, November 17th
13.15 Who You Think I Am
13.30 Claude Sautet: The Things of Life
15.20 La Belle Époque – SOLD OUT
17.40 Pure as Snow + Q&A with Vincent Macaigne
20.20 Someone, Somewhere