After the Angoulême Festival, the promise of films made by young people and women in theaters

Attendance at the 17th edition of the Angoulême Film Festival, which has just ended, confirms the good health of cinema in France this summer. The public and professionals voted for youth and emotion.

Make way for youth, seems to be the cry of the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, where the pulse of French cinema has been taken for several years now at the start of the school year. The 17th edition, which ended last weekend, crowned the young director Louise Courvoisier. The Franche-Comté native scooped the Valois de Diamant and the Valois des étudiants francophones with Twenty Gods. A young guard, both on and off screen, is thus celebrated. The filmmaker’s first film tells the story of Totone, an 18-year-old young man who, with his friends, takes on the challenge of making the best Comté cheese in Jura as part of an agricultural competition with a prize of 30,000 euros. A nice sum that could help him take care of his little sister, who is now his responsibility.

Youth, according to the co-general delegate Dominique Besnehard, is one of the major themes that runs through this sample of French production, around forty films, which was presented to the Angoulême public. “A youth that is searching for itself with Twenty Godslike the hero of Lads [premier film du cinéaste français Julien Menanteau] whose interpreter, Marco Luraschi, won the Valois for actor. There is a youth that wants to make its dreams come true.” At the last Cannes Film Festival, the jury of the Un Certain Regard selection, chaired by the Canadian Xavier Dolan, also awarded the Youth Prize to Twenty Gods.

In Angoulême, 62,000 tickets were sold this year compared to 58,000 during the previous edition. These good figures confirm the support for a programme concocted “instinctively”, combining comedies and film noir. They also reinforce a trend observed in French cinemas in recent weeks. “August attendance consolidates the very good summer of 2024 for French cinemas, with a total of 46.19 million admissions compared to 43.95 million in 2023″notes the press release from the National Center for Cinema and the Animated Image published at the beginning of September.

“The great diversity of French films released [les huit premiers mois de l’année], with author, general public and family productions (The Count of Monte Cristo, A Little Something Extra, Emilia Pérez, Golo & Ritchie) and the return of American blockbuster films (Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Deadpool & Wolverine) after an eclipse at the beginning of the year, created strong momentum in theaters throughout the summer. A dynamic carried “mostly” by French production whose market share is increasing at “44.1% compared to 38.8% for American films”. A little something extra has passed the 10 million mark and The Count of Monte Cristo that of the 7 million.

“French cinema is in great shape, we have to shout it out,” ” hammers Dominique Besnehard.After Covid, we heard very negative speeches. French cinema is very alive, very diverse. Above all, there is the emergence of many young directors, young producers (…)”continues the general delegate. “That means it’s an industry on the move,” especially with regard to the place of women filmmakers.

In recent years, the French-speaking festival has naturally become a showcase for them. Of the ten films in competition for the 2024 edition, four are the work of female directors. Like Rabia by Mareike Engelhardt (released on November 27), which focuses on the journey of two young French women trapped by jihadist rhetoric, or The dog trial (September 11), the first film by actress Laetitia Dosch, with Jean-Pascal Zadi and François Damiens, who won the Valois for best screenplay.

This feminization seems obvious to Marie-France Brière. “People who talk about parity, it annoys me and what have we been like for 17 years?” she protests, referring to the duo she forms with Dominique Besnéhard at the head of the festival they created in 2008. “There are more and more female directors who are making well-produced, well-financed and well-distributed films,” analyzes Marie Carrot, FFA programming coordinator, when asked about the evolution of the seventh art in France in recent years. “These are new perspectives on new subjects.”

By giving the public prize to By bicycle! by actor and director Mathias Mlekuz, a docu-fiction about the mourning of a son who takes two friends by bike to Istanbul, Angoumois viewers validated a favorite of Dominique Besnehard. Like Agathe, a loyal FFA met at the festival that the film has left its mark. It is among the top 16 films seen during the week. Since the creation of the Festival, the septuagenarian has been coming to enjoy “a beautiful experience full of emotions, smiles, laughter, fears depending on the films.”

In programming By bicycle!the organizers hoped that the feature film would find a distributor. The film, which also won the Valois for best direction and best music, is now equipped with serious arguments. In addition to this work that made them laugh and cry, the spectators also appreciated the preview films presented by their stars.

So The Valley of Fools (the last movie by Xavier Beauvois with Jean-Paul Rouve and Pierre Richard)Prodigious by Frédéric and Valentin PotierTo live, to die, to be reborn by Gaël Morel – “the 4 films that we had at 8 p.m.” –, the opening films (The Barbarians by Julie Delpy) and closing (Sarah Bernhardt, The Divine by Gillaume Nicloux) in which we find Sandrine Kimberlain and Laurent Lafitte, “filled all the rooms of the CGR this year [plus d’un 1300 places au total]” explains Marie Carrot. These are films that the public liked. At the same time, the theaters are always full.”

In addition to satisfying the tastes of a wide audience, the diversity of the FFA is also reflected in the cost of the films. While the works offered in the “Previews” section have rather “substantial budgets”, The majority of the programming consists of films “less than 4 million euros”. “This is also the budget for arthouse films or films from the middle class”, says Dominique Besnehard.

“We are not magicians,” recalls Marie Carrot, the FFA programming coordinator. But “oWe hope that Angoulême will set the tone, that the Award-winning films in competition and previews that did well will work with French audiences. That’s usually what happens.”