laughter and tears for his fifteenth birthday

From Franck Dubosc’s new comedy to a drama on abortion with Laure Calamy: for its fifteenth anniversary, the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, which opens on Tuesday, promises to go from laughter to tears, with the ambition to bring the public back to theaters.

An eclecticism which is part of the DNA of this festival, regional in its beginnings in 2008, then national then in the process of becoming international, was welcomed this week on France Inter Dominique Besnehard, co-creator of the festival with producer Marie-France Brière. If about fifty films will be presented to the public from August 23 to 28, only ten are presented in competition. Among them, seven are the work of female directors. A notable figure as the place of female filmmakers remains a difficult equation for major film festivals. “Without wanting to be #MeToo, we realized that the films were made a lot by women and talked a lot about women’s problems (…) It was not a desire to say to ourselves “we are going to ride the wave” , it was really our choice“, estimated Dominique Besnehard.

women’s stories

Among the most anticipated films: Annie Angerthe second feature film by the actress, who went on to direct, Blandine Lenoir, with in the title role Laura Calamythe actress of the series Ten percent and D’Antoinette in the Cevennes. A film that will echo the news since it will return to the Movement for the Freedom of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC) which campaigned in favor of the right to abortion in France in the 1970s.

Read alsoLaure Calamy, solo mother and prostitute in the thriller “A woman of the world”

Another awaited film, Houria by Mounia Meddour (Papicha, 2019). The filmmaker returns to the place of women in Algeria through the fate of a young dancer trying to rebuild herself after an assault. The opportunity to find the actress Lyna Khoudrinow unmissable and soon to be shown at November on the attacks of 2015.

Women always, with the Quebec film Noémie says yes by first-time director Geneviève Albert on teenage prostitution.

Another highly anticipated film, out of competition: Simone, the trip of the century, biopic on Simone Veil. The director of The kid, Olivier Dahanentrusted the mission of embodying this major political personality, who entered the Pantheon in 2018, a figure in the fight for women and a former survivor of Auschwitz, to Elsa Zylberstein.

Read alsoElsa Zylberstein as Simone Veil in a biopic by Olivier Dahan

“Giving the Right Trends”

But Angoulême will not be limited to films dealing with social issues. Frank Dubosc will come to present rumba life, his long-awaited second film after Everybody stand up, which had attracted nearly 2.5 million spectators in 2018. Scheduled for August 24, the release of the film about a man taking up the rumba to reconnect with his daughter, had been postponed to the end of 2021 due to the Covid. “The health context is too heavy and the film too important to sacrifice it», had justified the actor-director.

The duo of Ch’tis, Dany Boon and Line Renaud94, will also be celebrating with A great race, which will open the festival, directed by Christian Carion. For its fifteenth year, the festival intends “to give the right lines and the right tendencies”, emphasizes Dominique Besnehard, recalling that he had been the one who presented the film Untouchables, one of the greatest successes of French cinema (nearly twenty million admissions). Of the “good lines” which he hopes will relaunch attendance at cinemas, which have still not regained their pre-Covid attendance.

Read alsoCinema: how to stop the decline in attendance

“About 20 to 30% of spectators never returned to theaters”, he said on France Inter. “Can we reverse this trend? Of course, we will reverse this trend. In Angoulême, there are 30% more reservations”. As every year, a French-speaking country will be in the spotlight: nine films in homage to Rwandan cinema will be programmed in this context.