The New Zealand French Film Festival Has Dropped Its 2020 Lineup
With 30 formidable films on offer, including twisty whodunnits, insightful documentaries and the second highest-grossing French film of 2019.
The New Zealand French Film Festival has grown to become the second largest film festival in the country. For its 14th year the curtain will raise on four weeks (12 March to 5 April) of French dramas, comedies, biopics, period films, melodramas and documentaries in 16 cities across New Zealand.
Thirty films make up this year's lineup. Of those, Director Guillaume Canet's We'll End Up Together was the second highest-grossing French film of 2019. The sequel to hit 2010 film Little White Lies is centered around a reunion dinner, and with its all-star cast of François Cluzet and Marion Cotillard covers the joy of friendship, personal and professional resentments, and the ways having children can fracture and cement social circles.
Following an Honourable Mention at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Alice Winocour's Proxima is also set to hit NZ screens. The drama follows a career-driven astronaut forced to choose between her work and daughter as she is invited upon a year-long space mission.
Aznavour by Charles offers an intimate insight into the life of one of France's greatest artists, Aznavour a Paillard-Bolex, though his own personal film archive. Narrated by French actor Romain Duris, the documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the man himself and his relationships with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet and Brigitte Bardot.
Elsewhere, classic Italian children's book The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily gets an update in master illustrator Mattotti's feature debut; One Day Ahead is a documentary following eight amateur New Zealand cyclists as they attempt to ride the Tour de France; twisty whodunnit The Translators is based on the final book of a best-selling French trilogy; and Camille Laurens' Who You Think I Am is a gripping film about female desire and identity starring Academy Award-winner Juliette Binoche.
The 2020 New Zealand French Film Festival will run in Auckland from 19 March – 5 April at Bridgeway Cinemas, Monterey Cinemas, Capital Cinema and Berkeley Cinema, and in Wellington from 12 March – 29 March at Penthouse Cinema. For full program details including screening times and ticket information, visit frenchfilmfestival.co.nz.
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