French film festival 2025
!!!! Lucky Draw tickets on sale here !!!!
One Ticket: 5$
Five Tickets: 20$
!!!Film Tickets on sale NOW!!!
Bolero: Special Screening Friday 12:30pm: $15 No Concessions
The Count of Monte Cristo: Opening Night $30/$25 Concession (includes a drink and hors d'oeuvres)
All other sessions: $25 / $20 Concession
Festival Pass only $120/$90 Concession : 7 movies excluding opening night
Concessions apply to Alliance Française de Cairns & End Credits members.
***All tickets can be purchased online except the passes that are only available to be purchased in person at Event cinemas Cairns Central***
Friday 9 May
12:30pm
bolero
BIOPIC, DRAMA / FRANCE, BELGIUM / 2024 / 121 MINS / PG
Every 15 minutes, someone somewhere in the world plays Ravel's "Bolero" – it's a legacy its artist could never have imagined.
Renowned composer Maurice Ravel (Raphaël Personnaz) is haunted by self-doubt and melancholy. Commissioned by eccentric and magnanimous Russian dancer Ida Rubenstein (César-winning Jeanne Balibar), he must compose a carnal, rapturous fanfare for her latest ballet. Blocked creatively and cast aside by his peers, Ravel turns to his closest friends for inspiration – pianist Marguerite Long (Emmanuelle Devos, Masquerade, AF FFF23), his friend Cipa (Vincent Perez) and Cipa's sister Misia (Doria Tillier), whom he hopelessly adores. Set against the decadent, industrialised Paris of the 1920s, "Bolero" demands that Ravel draw on the essence of sound itself to redeem his raw genius, or risk being consumed by it completely.
A tribute to the timelessness of the composer’s haunting masterpiece, Bolero, writer-director Anne Fontaine takes us on a deconstructed,
elliptical journey through the idiosyncratic life of Maurice Ravel, via his struggle to complete that 17-minute piece of music. Premiering
at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, BOLERO is a celebration of a classical genius.
Book your Ticket here
Friday 9 May
8pm
the count of monte cristo
ACTION, DRAMA, HISTORICAL EPIC / FRANCE / 2024 / 178 MINS / M
Pierre Niney leads a stellar cast in Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s thrilling new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ epic adventure, the first French cinematic treatment of the iconic tale of romance and redemption in over fifty years.
Marseille, 1815. The dreams of principled young sailor Edmond Dantès (Niney) are about to come true; promoted to ship’s captain, he can finally marry the love of his life, Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier). But his success inspires jealousy… betrayed by his rivals, Dantès is denounced as a member of a pro-Napoleon conspiracy and incarcerated without trial in an isolated prison.
After years of solitude, Dantès befriends the inmate in the adjacent cell, Abbé Faria (Pierfrancesco Favino), who reveals the location of a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. An extraordinary plan is hatched to exact revenge on the three men who wronged him…
A true cultural phenomenon in France (where it stormed the box office with close to 10 million tickets sold), THE COUNT OF MONTE
CRISTO delivers
luxurious, spectacular big-screen entertainment, at once timeless and electrifyingly new. Widely expected to sweep the 2025 César Awards,
it’s a Festival must-see.
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Saturday 10 May
1:30pm
my brother´s band
COMEDY, DRAMA / FRANCE / 2024 / 103 MINS / M
A sensation at Cannes and one of Franceʼs biggest box office and audience favourites of the year (achieving over two million admissions and entry into the top five of 2024), writer/director Emmanuel Courcol's wildly entertaining new film follows two very different siblings separated by fate and reunited by their love of music.
Thibaut (the exceptional Benjamin Lavernhe, Delicious, C’est la vie!) is a beloved and internationally celebrated orchestra conductor who travels the globe. When a health crisis and subsequent DNA test inadvertently reveals he was adopted as an infant, Thibaut discovers the existence of a younger brother, Jimmy (rising star Pierre Lottin), who lives in more modest circumstances; he works in a school cafeteria, cares for his mother and plays the trombone in a community brass band. The pair seem to have little else in common other than a love of performance, but sensing his sibling’s exceptional talent, Thibaut decides to remedy the injustice of fate and try to help nurture his brother’s untapped gifts.
An eruptive crowd favourite wherever it has premiered (notably receiving the highest audience score in the 51-year history of the San
Sebastian Film Festival), MY BROTHER’S BAND is a rousing, feel-great trip to the cinema, expertly striking the perfect
harmony between laughter and tears. Bring your family, your friends, and some tissues.
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Saturday 11 May
4:00pm
my everything
DRAMA / FRANCE / 2024 / 94 MINS / MA 15+
After establishing herself as one of France’s most popular and successful comediennes, the multi-talented Laure Calamy follows Full Time, AF FFF22, with another dramatic tour-de-force in writer/director Anne-Sophie Bailly’s deeply affecting debut.
Calamy plays single, middle-aged beautician Mona, completely dedicated to 30-year-old son Joël (Charles Peccia Galletto), who lives with cerebral palsy. Joël works in a specialised facility and is secretly in love with co-worker Océane; while Mona knows nothing of their relationship, all is revealed when it becomes evident that Océane is pregnant.
Océane’s parents and Mona are collectively stunned by the news, but the couple declare they are in love and determined to forge a life together. Mona finds herself torn between her son’s iron will, her maternal instincts and a suppressed desire to enjoy life on her own terms…
Emotionally involving and honest, Bailly’s debut feature offers a moving observation of caregiving, inter-dependence and how society treats the rights of the most fragile. With Calamy excelling alongside her impressive non-professional co-stars, MY EVERYTHING is a stirring and resonant story of motherhood, compassion and acceptance.
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Saturday 10 May
8pm
the story of souleymane
DRAMA / FRANCE / 2024 / 94 MINS / M
Winner of three major awards at Cannes and Best Actor at the recent European Film Awards, writer/director Boris Lojkine’s propulsive drama follows a young courier as he races across Paris whilst preparing for a life-changing residency interview.
Delivery workers have become an indispensable part of city life, especially since the pandemic. Among them is Souleymane (Abou Sangaré, in a commanding debut), who criss-crosses the frenetic Parisian streets in a constant race against the clock. He, like many around him, is working without permission, ‘renting’ his identity from a friend with legal status. But in just two days, Souleymane will learn whether his own asylum application will be approved or not. So, whilst striving to meet his delivery platform’s demands, he nervously practices for his interview, trying to keep his growing anxiety at bay…
A major artistic highlight of this year’s Festival, Lojkine’s compassionate drama echoes not only Bicycle Thieves and the best films of the Dardennes, but also edge-of-your-seat thrillers such as Full Time (AF FFF23), and fast-became both a national talking point and word-of-mouth hit across France. Only adding to the film’s immense power is the real-life situation of its remarkable lead, who has already been denied citizenship by the French authorities. Three times.
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Sunday 11 May
1:30pm
beating hearts
DRAMA, ROMANCE / FRANCE, BELGIUM / 2024 / 160 MINS / MA 15+
The phenomenal Adèle Exarchopoulos and François Civil – arguably French cinema’s brightest young talents – devour the screen in Gilles Lellouche’s vibrant, genre-spanning romantic epic that follows a written-in-the-stars infatuation tested by social boundaries, betrayal and circumstances beyond all control.
Love makes one crazy. Just ask Clotaire (Civil) and Jackie (Exarchopoulos), who meet in their teens in their Northern France working-class neighbourhood in the 1980s. Despite their differences – she is a diligent student from the middle class, he a charming troublemaker with a complex family life – an intense and unmistakable connection is sparked. But tragedy soon pulls them apart.
A decade later, Clotaire tries desperately to win back his lost love. Has his chance passed?
Driven by a kinetic soundtrack, indelible production design and all-star supporting cast, BEATING HEARTS pays homage to
the US independent film wave of the 1980s and early 1990s but creates an impact truly of its own. Delivering another massive, crowd-pleasing
blockbuster result at the French box office (after Sink Or Swim) with an extraordinary five million admissions, Lellouche
reaches for the stars and rewards all who strap in for the ride.
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Sunday 12 May
4:45pm
how to make a killing
DARK COMEDY / FRANCE / 2025 / 112 MINS / MA15+
A freak run-in with a black bear drives Michel (Franck Dubosc) off the road one wintry Christmas Eve, leading to the deaths of two strangers. Instead of reporting the accident, he panics and flees. His long-suffering wife Cathy (Laure Calamy, Antoinette in the Cevennes, AF FFF21), an ardent fan of crime novels, points out the obvious: with his prints all over the deceased’s car, suspicion will fall on him – and they can’t afford bail.
When they discover two million euros and a gun on the bodies, their situation takes a dangerous turn. As another body surfaces, Michel and Cathy will stop at nothing to avoid suspicion, even if it means burying themselves in an avalanche of lies.
Franck Dubosc’s black comedy, HOW TO MAKE A KILLING, is a journey full of twists where nothing is as it seems. As Michel and Cathy navigate ethical dilemmas and increasingly absurd situations, the feckless small-town gendarmes inch closer. But what if they’re closer to the sharp detectives in Cathy’s crime novels than they first appear?
Leading from one improbable instance to another – and with bears technically non-existent in the Jura – how far will Michel and Cathy go to
clear their names?
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Sunday 12 May
8pm
MOnsieur Aznavour
BIOPIC DRAMA / FRANCE, BELGIUM / 2024 / 133 MINS / M
Just as Marion Cotillard was to La Vie en Rose, Golden Globe-nominated actor Tahar Rahim is to MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR, transforming into the iconic singer/songwriter for this lavishly entertaining rise-to-stardom biography of the man who beat all odds to not only become one of France’s best-loved entertainers, but personified French culture to the rest of the world.
Born in Paris in 1924 as the son of Armenian refugees, Charles Aznavour’s formative years are spent in poverty, but distinguished by his parents’ passion for music and theatre. Ridiculed for his short stature and raspy tenor voice – traits he would in time fully embrace – Aznavour’s early attempts at a showbiz career during the Occupation falter.
Whilst gifted, his material finds more success in the hands of others, including his friend Pierre (Bastien Bouillon), and later the imperious Edith Piaf (a scene-stealing Marie-Julie Baup), who becomes a highly influential mentor and supporter. But by the 1950s, Aznavour finally realises his own ambitions; his empathetic ‘chansonsʼ about the heartbreaks, confusions and passions of the common man (mining the dramas of his own life) catapult him to global attention.
Led by its starʼs astonishing performance and stunning vocal prowess, MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR is a true tour de force – as intimate as it is spectacular – and serves as a triumphant reminder of the power and impact of music.
Don’t miss one of France’s biggest hits of the year.
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