Austin Film Society will present New French Cinema Week, a five-day festival of award-winning Francophone films from leading new names in global cinema. Presented in partnership with UniFrance and the Premiers Plans Festival d’Angers, the week will feature dialogues with Francophone filmmakers and guests in attendance, an opening night party for AFS members, music events, and diverse programming including animation, shorts, and family-themed screenings.

Program Schedule:

• April 25: Petit Paysan - Petit Paysan was honored for Best First Film, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor by the César Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars. Pierre, a shy young dairy farmer, begins to take precautions when word of Mad Cow Disease in France begins to make the national headlines. AFS Members are invited to an exclusive champagne opening party prior to the film. (Director Hubert Charuel in attendance)
• April 26 (7 pm): Montparnasse Bienvenue - This Cannes Film Festival Caméra D'Or Winner stars Laetitia Dosch as the hot-tempered Julia, a woman at the end of her rope after a bad break up. This glorious female-centered comedy is directed by first-time feature filmmaker Léonor Serraille and made by nearly an all-female creative team. (Composer Julia Roué in attendance)
• April 26 (9:30 pm): The Correspondence Project: Filmmakers and musicians from Austin and Angers, France participated in the Correspondence project, an exchange program that pairs two artists to create a collaborative work between their respective artistic practices: music and video. In this program, AFS will showcase a series of videos created by Austin video artists for Angers musicians, and vice versa. The screening will be followed by a party open to all ticket and pass holders, with live performances by Holodeck Records modular synth artists Curved Light and Dylan Cameron. Both artists were contributors to the project.
• April 27: Custody - Inspired equally by Kramer Vs. Kramer and Stephen King, Legrand weaves an ominous tale of a family caught up in a custody battle and succeeds in creating what will be one of the most talked-about foreign-language films of the year. The film won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. (Director Xavier Legrand in attendance)
• April 28 (1 pm): "New French Cinema Week Shorts"- AFS presents short films by emerging Francophone directors, including films by participating New French Cinema Week filmmakers.
• April 28 (4 pm): This Is Our Land - Director Lucas Belvaux places the rise of France's far right under his lens in his fictionalized version of the inner workings of the National Front. A single working mother, Pauline (played by Emilie Dequenne), attracts the attention of a local far right party leader, who set their sights on her for candidacy in her working-class region. Apolitical Pauline is attracted to the party's local proletariat stance but doesn't perceive that the strings are being pulled from afar.
• April 28 (7 pm): Until The Birds Return - A selection of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard 2017, the film is a place-based cinematic poem about modern-day Algeria, told through three stories unfolding against the country’s diverse landscapes. (Director Karim Moussaoui in attendance)
• April 29 (1 pm): Sunday School: The Red Turtle - The entire family is invited to this AFS “Sunday School” screening of France’s 2016 Oscar-nominated animated feature about a magical red turtle who comes into contact with a shipwrecked sailor. The film features stunning images and sound design and is dialogue-free (no subtitles necessary).
• April 29 (5 pm): Félicité - Celebrated Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis's stunning film tells the story of a Congolese nightclub singer who will stop at nothing to find a way to pay the bills of her hospitalized son.