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Emerging French voices at the Film Center.

Young French Cinema brings high-profile independent works, powerful documentaries and quirky discoveries from an emerging generation of innovative French storytellers to America. The 2022 edition showcases 6 shorts and 10 feature films – 8 directed by women – that were selected at major film festivals in 2021, including Cannes and Toronto.

The Film Center is proud to bring Young French Cinema back to Columbus.

Presented at the Center from April 15 – 20, 2022

Premiering in our Virtual Screening Room on April 22, 2022

Young French Cinema is a program of Unifrance and Villa Albertine in partnership with the French Embassy. 


Robust (2022) w/ short film The Bath — Friday, April 15

With this closely observed double portrait of an aging French film star and the young Black woman he hires as his new bodyguard, first-time feature writer-director Constance Meyer breathes new life into the odd couple theme.  See full details here.


The Heroics (2022) — Friday, April 15

The beauty of filmmaker Maxime Roy’s stirring debut resides in the way it dispels this notion of losers and winners without pulling any punches about the difficulties of life on the fringes.  See full details here.


The Braves (2022) w/ short film Sër Bi — Friday, April 15 & Tuesday, April 19

Anaïs Volpé gives us a story of death that is bursting with life, a fresh take on the restless nights of Paris, and an ode to the power of female friendship. See full details here.


Secret Name (2022) — Saturday, April 16

Aurélia Georges’s film focuses on the impact of rigid class hierarchy on the lives of three women, offering a nuanced feminist reading that resonates with the iniquities of our era. See full details here.


Hard Shell Soft Shell (2022) w/ short film The Right Words — Saturday, April 16

Writer-director Emma Benestan makes an exhilarating feature debut with this wryly feminist update on the romantic comedy. Benestan upends gender and class stereotypes to take the pulse of romance in an era of role reversals. See full details here.


Magnetic Beats (2022) w/ short film The World Within

Saturday, April 16 & Tuesday, April 19

Vincent Maël Cardona juxtaposes the eternal thrills of first love and the frustrations of provincial life with a lovingly specific depiction of the dawn of the 1980s. See full details here.


Above Water (2022) — Sunday, April 17

With this intimate portrait of a village in the semi-arid plains of northern Niger, internationally acclaimed Senegalese-French actress and activist Aïssa Maïga reveals the devastating effects of global warming on remote populations.  See full details here.


L’horizon (2022) — Sunday, April 17

While writer-director Emilie Carpentier captures our emotions with a charming tale of first love between young people from different backgrounds, her real subject here is the dawning of political and social awareness at the cusp of maturity.  See full details here.


The Hill Where Lionesses Roar (2022) w/ short film Locked Out

Sunday, April 17 & Wednesday, April 20

Luàna Bajrami displays a distinctly personal approach to filmmaking, perceptible both in the film’s autobiographical aspects and in her impressionistic manner of capturing the fleeting sensations of adolescent rage and hope. See full details here.


Good Mother (2022) w/ short film The Departure — Monday, April 18

Shot in Hafsia Herzi’s childhood neighborhood, Bonne mère takes a documentary approach to the struggles of a woman supporting her children and grandchildren. See full details here.


Young French Cinema 2022 Short Films — Tuesday, April 19

Featuring six short films:

Le Monde en Soi/The World Within
dir. Jean-Charles Finck, Sandrine Stoïanov

Le Départ/The Departure
dir. Saïd Hamich Benlarbi

Les Tissus Blancs/Sër Bi
dir. Moly Kane

Confinés Dehors/Locked Out
dir. Julien Goudichaud

Haut les Cœurs/The Right Words
dir. Adrian Moyse Dullin

Le Bain/The Bath
dir. Anissa Daoud

See full details here.


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