David Farnor | On 19, Jan 2019

MyFrenchFilmFestival is back for its ninth year, and the 2019 line-up is now available to stream around the world. The world’s first online French-language film festival, which brings 28 movies to international living rooms across 50 partnering platforms, had a record year in 2018, with more than 12 million views of its collection. 2019 is shaping up to be equally promising, with a collection of new-generation filmmakers, a handful of older favourites and a mix of feature films and shorts.

Among them include the new film from Rubber director Quentin Dupieux, a drama starring Marion Cotillard, and a crime thriller from Erick Zonca starring Vincent Cassel. Organised in six thematic sections, the festival features stories about family affairs in Family Business, a taste of the absurd and wacky in What the F…rench!?, films that shine the spotlight on women battling the world around them with Women at War, punchy and provocative films with In Your Face, homegrown love stories in Love “à la française” and, last but not least, a selection of innovative creations in New Horizons.

A jury of filmmakers – including Mr. Nobody’s Jaco Van Dormael, Divines’ Houda Benyamina, Revenge’s Coralie Fargeat, Memory Lane’s Mikhaël Hers and Rebelle’s Kim Nguyen – will present a Directors Award, while users can vote on the Lacoste Audience Award winners for both features and shorts.

Not all films are released in every country (Sauvage, for example, will be released on 1st March 2019 by Peccadillo Pictures), but each eligible feature is available on-demand from 18th January to 18th February. You can buy and rent them from £1.99, with the shorts available to stream for free on the MyFrenchFilmFestival.com website – you can also buy a festival pack on the festival’s site for £7.99, which includes all of the films together.

The titles are released on a variety of other VOD platforms in the UK, including Google Play, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Movies and (with the exception of Black Tide) Curzon Home Cinema. Three films (Keep and Eye Out, Let the Girls Play and Black Tide) will also be available on MUBI, as part of a £7.99 monthly subscription. Stay tuned for our reviews of this year’s films – and read on below for the full list of festival titles available in the UK.

Family Business

Gaspard at the Wedding (2017, d. Antony Cordier)

After keeping a careful distance for many years, 25-year-old Gaspard must reconnect with his family when his father remarries. Accompanied by Laura, an eccentric young woman who agrees to pretend she’s his girlfriend at the wedding, he finally feels ready to return to the zoo owned by his parents, where he is reunited with the monkeys and tigers he grew up with…

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Guy (2018, d. Alex Lutz)

Gauthier, a young journalist, learns through his mother that he’s the illegitimate son of Guy Jamet, an aging French pop singer who was famous from the ‘60s to the ‘90s. As the old-time crooner embarks on a tour to promote his newly released cover album, Gauthier decides to follow him, behind the scenes, on stage, and on the road, under the pretext of filming a documentary about his career.

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In Your Face

Black Tide (2018, d. Erick Zonca)

Dany, the Arnault family’s teenage son, has disappeared. The case is assigned to François Visconti, a world-weary and disillusioned detective. He sets out to find the missing teenager while he is reluctant to take care of his own son, Denis, 16, who seems to be mixed up in drug trafficking. Erick Zonca returns with a fiercely dark and twisting thriller, led by an unforgettably volatile Vincent Cassel.

Available on MUBI UK from 27th January

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Love a la Francaise

Diane Has the Right Shape (2017, d. Fabien Gorgeart)

Diane doesn’t hesitate for a moment when her best friends, Thomas and Jacques, ask her to be the surrogate mother of their child. It is under these hardly ideal circumstances that she falls in love with Fabrizio.

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Fake Tattoos (2017, d. Pascal Plante)

Theo spends his 18th birthday alone, getting drunk at a punk rock show. There, he meets Mag, a teenage girl who invites him to spend the night at her place. A love story starts between them, but Theo has to leave the city at the end of summer.

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What the F…rench!?

Keep an Eye Out (2018, d. Quentin Dupieux)

In a police station, a suspect taken into custody is interrogated by a police captain. Quentin Dupieux’s absurd new comedy places asinine slapstick and ingenuous dialogue in the ripe confines of an interrogation to chaotic, hilarious and cathartic effect.

Available on MUBI UK from 19th January

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So Help Me God (2017, d. Yves Hinant, Jean Libon)

So Help Me God is the first feature documentary from the satirical team behind the cult TV series Strip-Tease. Over three years, the directors followed judge Anne Gruwez during criminal investigations, hearings, and crime scene visits. It’s not cinema: it’s worse!

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Women at War

Let the Girls Play (2018, d. Julien Hallard)

Reims, France, 1969. Paul Coutard, an inveterate womanizer and sports journalist at the daily newspaper Le Champenois, decides to organize a women’s football match to defy his boss during the newspaper’s annual charity fair. His favorite enemy, executive assistant Emmanuelle Bruno, has to help him. Unbeknownst to them, they will put together the first women’s football team in France.

Available on MUBI UK from 20th January

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Angel Face (2018, d. Vanessa Filho)

A young woman raises her 8-year-old daughter alone. One night, after a chance encounter in a nightclub, the girl’s mother decides not to return home, leaving her child to her own devices. Marion Cotillard stars.

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Tomorrow and Thereafter (2017, d. Noemie Lvovsky)

Mathilde is nine years old. Her parents have separated. She lives with her mother, a fragile person who hovers at the edge of madness. It’s a story of a unique love between a daughter and her mother.

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Short Films

Available for free on MyFrenchFilmFestival.com

Family Business
Blue Dog
A Man My Son

What The F…rench!?
Judith Hotel
The Seventh Continent
Wild Love

Women at War
Flowers
The Collection

In Your Face
At Dawn
Little Hands
Fauve
Hybrids

Love “à la française”
There’s No Love Strong Than Ours
The Pier

New Horizons
Gauguin’s inner
Words Hurt

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