Angoulême Francophone Film Festival Honors Morocco and Alain Delon

With ten films in competition, the event, which began in 2008, has grown considerably, to the point of aiming for “more than 70,000” festival-goers this year according to its organizers, compared to 58,000 in 2023.

Back to school meeting has become “unavoidable” for cinema, the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival welcomes spectators and professionals from Tuesday 27 to Sunday 1 September for a 17th edition dedicated to Morocco, the guest country, and preceded on Monday evening by a tribute to Alain Delon.

With ten films in competition, the event, which began in 2008, has grown considerably, to the point of aiming for “more than 70,000” festival-goers this year according to its organizers, compared to 58,000 in 2023. “Now we know that this is the festival we do just before going back to school,” summarizes Dominique Besnehard, general delegate with Marie-France Brière. Having contributed in 2011 to launching Intouchables by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, one of the greatest triumphs of French cinema (nearly 20 million admissions), “the festival has gained a dimension, not only regional, but national, even international now”, estimates its co-founder.

The stars of the silver screen, such as this year the British actress Kristin Scott Thomas as president of the jury, Julie Delpy in the running as director or Sandrine Kiberlain playing Sarah Bernhardt, meet professionals from the sector as well as simple cinema lovers.

“This year, the focus is on portraits of extraordinary women,” explains Dominique Besnehard, citing Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi as a bipolar mother in A dream life by Morgan Simon, or Audrey Lamy facing an autistic son in In flip-flops at the foot of the Himalayas by John Wax.

Out of ten films, four female directors are competing for the “Diamond Valois” for best feature film, such as Laetitia Dosch. The actress and director is in the running with The Trial of the Dogpresented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and winner of the “Palm Dog”rewarding the most outstanding canine in the selection.

The public will also find the rapper and actor Sofiane Zermani (alias Fianso) and Clotilde Courau in a first film signed by the press attaché Hassan Guerrar, Barbès, Little Algeria. The festival will finally give pride of place to “the countryside” according to Dominique Besnehard, with Twenty Gods by Louise Courvoisier, the story of “young people trying to find an ideal.”

Out of competition, there is also the documentary France, a love storyco-signed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. “A great witness of our times”, greets the general delegate, and a film which “puts us in front of our responsibilities.”

The common thread of the festival, Moroccan cinema is in the spotlight, with “brave films” like those of Nabil Ayouch, a director capable of “shaking all taboos”, according to the voluble agent and producer. The Moroccan director, whose film Much Loved had been crowned at Angoulême in 2015, returns this time to present his new feature film Everybody loves Touda.

This edition also offers an insight into the work of director Valérie Donzelli (War is declared, Love and the Forests) and will present a preview of his documentary Conservatory Street. The Barbarians by French actress and director Julie Delpy (2 Days in Paris, Le Skylab) Guillaume Nicloux’s film opens the festival on Tuesday, August 27 Sarah Bernhardt the divine closing on Sunday, September 1st. Coincidence: the actors Sandrine Kiberlain and Laurent Lafitte are on the bill for these two feature films.

Tributes were paid to the recently deceased actresses Micheline Presle and Anouk Aimée, and the death of Alain Delon led the organisation to organise an evening in his memory with the screening of Our Historyby Bertrand Blier. This film with Nathalie Baye, expected Monday in Angoulême, earned the actor the César for best actor in 1985, the only one of his career. “I worked with him, notably on Our story“, remembers Dominique Besnehard. “The character was not always simple. But I had a lot of admiration. He was a feline, a real charmer.”