David Farnor | On 25, Jan 2020

After 10 million plays in 2019, MyFrenchFilmFestival, the world’s first online French-language film festival, is back for 2020. The festival comprises a collection of features and shorts, subtitled in 10 languages and available all around the world from 16th January until 16th February.

Overseen by an international jury led by Ira Sachs, this year’s line-up includes five shorts for families available for free on YouTube, alongside three VR works. Features are divided into several strands: Is This Real?, a collection of singular films that play with spectators’ expectations and blur the boundaries between dream and reality. Say Cheese!, a series of French-language comedies determined to make you laugh. On the Frontline, telling conflict and war from new perspectives. All About Women, a strand that celebrates women in all their diversity. Teen Spirit, a panorama of the many questions concerning young people today.

Not all films are released in every country but each eligible feature is available on-demand to buy and rent from £1.99. 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, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Chili and Curzon Home Cinema, with the shorts available on YouTube and Facebook. One film will be released on MUBI – To the Ends of the World – as part of a £9.99 monthly subscription. The entire feature collection is also included with Amazon Prime.

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.

Is This Real?: Savage by Vincent Mariette

Somewhere in the South of France, teenagers are disappearing. The craziest rumors are spreading out, some people even talk about a wandering wild beast. Tempers flare as the police is left scrambling. Laura, a young teenager, is trying to solve the mystery. One of her friends has just gone missing…

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Is This Real?: Jessica Forever by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel

Jessica is the leader of a group of lost boys with a violent past who now seek peace and harmony. She is the only one to have ever brought them love and understanding. They only wish to create a world where they can live in peace together, and forever.

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Buy/Rent on Amazon Prime Video
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Say Cheese!: Holy Tour by Méryl Fortunat-Rossi and Valéry Rosier

A film about modern-day pilgrims,
A film about the hairpin bends of the legendary Izoard pass,
A film about RVs that stake their spots two weeks ahead of time,
A film about the passing of time perched between the road and the cliff,
A film about summertime and a new daily routine,
A film about our need to belong.

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Say Cheese!: The Bare Necessity by Erwan Le Duc

Pierre Perdrix has been enjoying an enchanted though restless existence since the enigmatic Juliette Webb burst into his life. A stranger who landed in his family’s unique world like a meteorite, and who by her presence alone will force this tight-knit microcosm to redefine their boundaries and finally begin to fully live their lives.

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Buy/Rent on Amazon Prime Video
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On the Frontline: To the Ends of the World by Guillaume Nicloux

Indochina, 1945. Robert Tassen, a young French soldier is the only survivor of a massacre where his brother perished before his eyes. Blinded by vengeance, Robert engages in a solitary and secret quest to find the assassins. But his meeting with Maï, a young Indochinese woman, will change his beliefs.

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On the Frontline: Escape from Raqqa by Emmanuel Hamon

Unbeknown to her husband Sylvain, Faustine leaves Paris with her 5-year-old son to join ISIS in Syria. But she realizes soon after reaching Raqqa the hell she has put herself into. Sylvain quickly understands that the French services are powerless to help, and plans, with a few friends of his, a high risk ex ltration operation to save his wife and son. A true story.

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All About Women: Mothers’ Instinct by Olivier Masset-Depasse

Brussels, early 60’s. Alice and Céline live in twin bourgeois houses. They are best friends as are their children, Theo and Maxime, who have grown up like brothers. Both families spend all their time together. This perfect harmony is broken when Maxime, Céline’s son, tragically falls to his death from his bedroom window. This accident happens very quickly and Alice, witness of the scene, can’t save him.

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All About Women: The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec

Summer 1998 – Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.

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All About Women: With the Wind by Bettina Oberli

An isolated farm in a remote part of the Jura region: this is where Pauline and Alex are living in complete self-sufficient harmony with nature. Their life project is sealed by their love, their ideals and their work. The couple is now ready to take the step towards total independence, and start producing their own electricity. The arrival of Samuel, who comes to install a wind turbine, deeply troubles Pauline, upsetting their relationship and their values.

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Teen Spirit: School’s Out by Sébastien Marnier

A high school teacher throws himself from the classroom window before the terrified eyes of his students. Despite the tragedy, six of them remain oddly cool and unemotional. Pierre, the new substitute teacher, notices the hostile behaviour of this close-knit clique. Smart and precocious, the six teenagers seem to be preparing a mysterious plan after school. PIerre becomes obsessed with them and is quickly sucked into their sinister game. His life soon turns into a nightmare.

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Teen Spirit: Meteorites by Romain Laguna

Nina, a 16-year-old girl, dreams of adventure. Meanwhile, she spends the summer between her village in the south of France and the theme park where she works. Just before meeting Morad, a teenage from an Algerian family living in the nearby projects, Nina sees a meteorite falling in the sky that seems only visible to her… as an omen.

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Special Screening: Crack 6T by Jean-François Richet

16 year-old Arco, Malik and Mustapha, are known on the estate as “Devils”. With little parental support and failures in school, they spend their time either hanging out together, or working off the steam of social pressures in fighting with other kids from the hood. Djeff, J-M, Hamouda and Pete are older ; all between 20 and 26 and on the dole. They hang out on the estate; their main interests : girls and run-ins with neighbouring estates. During the eagerly awaited big hip-hop party, all hell breaks loose. On the night-club parking-lot there’s a shoot-out. The police wade in. Malik dies. It’s a riot…

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My Little Zoo

For the first time, MyFrenchFilmFestival focuses a spotlight on animation films for younger audiences and offers five short films to watch as a family within its 10th edition. These are all available for free on the official YouTube channel here.

After the Rain
Sam’s Dream
Stuffed
A Tiger With No Stripes
Turbopéra

New Horizons

MyFrenchFilmFestival wishes to highlight the capacity of French creative works to constantly reinvent themselves… These new forms of images and screenwriting will move and disconcert you.

The Scream VR by Sandra Paugam and Charles Ayats
Isle of the Dead VR by Benjamin Nuel
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère VR by Gabrielle Lissot

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