The 24th New Orleans French Film Festival, one of the longest-running foreign-language festivals in the country, will showcase excellence in contemporary and classic francophone cinema between March 23 and 31, 2021. Films will be screened safely outdoors at The Broadside with all films also available to stream at home through the streaming platform of the New Orleans Film Society. All films will include English subtitles.
All Access passes are $80 ($35 for students) and offer free admission into all in-person and virtual festival screenings. Virtual passes are $50 and offer free admission to all virtual screenings. General admission tickets are $15 to The Broadside and $10 for virtual tickets.
Live music will accompany a curated selection of French-language films and a program of short films. Screenings will include:
Two of Us (Deux)
(France|2019)
France’s submission for Best Foreign-Language Film for the 2021 Academy Awards, Two of Us tells the story of two retired women, Nina and Madeleine, who have been secretly in love for decades. Everybody, including Madeleine’s family, thinks they are simply neighbors, sharing the top floor of their building. They come and go between their two apartments, enjoying the affection and pleasures of daily life together, until an unforeseen event turns their relationship upside down and leads Madeleine’s daughter to gradually unravel the truth about them.
Mandabi
(Senegal|1968)
This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène’s most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi—an adaptation of a novella by the director himself—is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty.
Summer of ’85 (Été ’85)
(France|2020)
The new film from celebrated French auteur François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women), Summer of 85 is a nostalgic look at first loves and reckless adolescence sans the rose-colored glasses we’ve come to expect from traditional coming-of-age stories. Alexis is an average, emotionally volatile 16-year-old boy, questioning both his future and the present opportunities for him in his beachside hometown of Normandy. When a dashing stranger saves him at sea, Alexis’ potentially dull summer is quickly upended as he is thrust into the alluring and enigmatic world of his new friend.
The 24th French Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of artistic director emeritus John Desplas of the New Orleans Film Society. A lover of French cinema, he was instrumental in bringing about New Orleans’ first French Film Festival in 1998 and was involved until his death last year.
For a full schedule, safety protocols, and to purchase passes or tickets, click here.
