In addition to the annual French Film Festival, we aim to organize several screenings and Q&As with filmmakers throughout the year. Below are the last reports as well as some pictures of our last guests offering the audience unique insights into their art...
Isaach De Bankolé
During a two-hour intimate dinner at Forbes College, award-winning actor Isaach De Bankolé went through his impressive artistic trajectory in Ivory Coast, France, and the USA where he starred in more than 80 movies and series (including Casino Royale and Black Panther). The evening (and the festival) ended with a screening of Claire Denis’ Chocolat (1980) and a special Q&A session wherein Isaach described the most interesting scenes set in Cameroon.
Louise Courvoisier
One week after the 50th Cesar Award ceremony at which Vingt Dieux (English: Holy Cow) won two awards for Best First Film and Best Female Revelation, filmmaker Louise Courvoisier talked to a 300-people audience about the origins of her story based on her small French village. In collaboration with New York's 30th Rendez-vous with French Cinema and Unifrance.
Simon Moutaïrou
In February 2025, as part of the Black History Month, scriptwriter Simon Moutaïrou was welcomed by about 300 attendees for his US Avant-Premiere of No Chains No Masters (French: Ni Chaînes Ni Maîtres), one of the very few fictions in French that deal with enslavement. Co-sponsored by Princeton University's Program in African Studies.
Virginie Verrier
In November 2024, director Virginie Verrier went through the making of her Marinette (2023), a biopic about Marinette Pichon, one of the best woman soccer player who had an exceptional career in both France and the region of Princeton, NJ.
Richard Brody
Princeton alumnus (class of 1980) and long-time film critic for The New Yorker came back to his alma mater on April 17, 2024 to offer crucial observations on the history and state of French and Francophone cinema in a well-attended masterclass before taking some questions from the viewers following the screening of Ira Sachs' Passages at the Princeton Garden Theater as part of the Princeton French Film Festival. Co-sponsored by the Princeton Public Library.
Alice Diop
As part of her US tour organized by New York's Villa Albertine, Alice Diop revealed the artistic choices behind her first multi-award-winning fiction Saint Omer (2021) while commenting on her next theatrical projects and transitioning towards a Visiting Professor position at Harvard University in the Fall of 2024. Organized in partnership with the 20th Anniversary of the French Theater Workshop L'Avant-Scène.
Davy Chou
Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Davy Chou toured several US universities, including Princeton on February 11, 2024, to present his Return to Seoul (2022) (shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film) and discuss belonging, homecoming, and adoption in South Korea. Co-sponsored by the East Asian Studies Department.
Johanna Makabi
Johanna Makabi presented her powerful short movie interview (Notre Mémoire / Our Memory) on Senegalese actress M'Bissine Thérèse Diop after the screening of 1966 Black Girl (French: La noire de...) by Ousmane Sembène, also considered "the father of African cinema". The festival-goers (re-)discovered these two masterpieces and learnt about the life of the often-forgotten and talented actress in 1960s Paris.
Rachid Hami
On November 5, 2023, actor and director Rachid Hami discussed his touching For My Country (French: Pour la France) (2022) based on the true story of his brother (of Algerian descent) who passed away in obscure circumstances while a young French soldier.
Iris Kaltenbäck
In New York for the 29th edition of Rendez-Vous With French Cinema where she received the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award, Director Iris Kaltenbäck presented her Cesar-nominated debut Le Ravissement (2023) whose US premiere took place in Princeton on March 2, 2024.
Gessica Généus
As part of the first edition of the Princeton French Film Festival in April 2023, Gessica Généus offered students and faculty a masterclass on contemporary Haitian cinema and exceptional insights into her Cannes-awarded Freda (2021). Hers was the first Haitian feature to screen at the 2021 Festival de Cannes since Raoul Peck's 1993 The Man by the Shore.
David Ernaux-Briot
Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux's son David Ernaux-Briot spoke about his recent The Super 8 Years (2022), a journey into the intimacy of his mother and childhood based on family archives.
Sponsors & Partners
These events were made possible thanks to the support of and partnership with the French Embassy’s Cultural Services Albertine Cinémathèque (a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the CNC / Centre National du Cinema, and SACEM / Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain) as well as UniFrance USA.