Lineup Includes Jodie Foster, Linklater

Following its role in last year’s historic run for awards season sensation Emilia Pérez, the American French Film Festival returns with a 2025 lineup boasting a pair of projects with Hollywood pedigrees, alongside an array of potential breakouts.

As the world’s largest film festival dedicated to French cinema and television series, TAFFF, which kicked off on Tuesday and runs through Nov. 3, represents a collaboration between the French and U.S. film and television industries that was established when the Franco-American Cultural Fund began in 1996. Celebrating the partnership between French association SACEM and the U.S. guild organizations — namely, the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association and the Writers Guild of America West — the screenings and events for the 29th annual installment take place at the DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles.

Among the 70 film and TV titles selected for this year’s edition is opening-night selection A Private Life, with French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski’s mystery feature showcasing Jodie Foster‘s first role entirely in the French language. Foster, a two-time Oscar winner who speaks fluent French, received a lifetime achievement award at the screening.

Additionally, the centerpiece screening featured Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater‘s latest narrative film, Nouvelle Vague, which chronicles the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic New Wave movie Breathless. Marking Linklater’s first film shot entirely in French, Nouvelle Vague screened Thursday, where Linklater accepted the Franco-American Cultural Fund Award for the project that stars American actress Zoey Deutch (playing Jean Seberg) and French performers Guillaume Marbeck (Jean-Luc Godard) and Aubry Dullin (Jean-Paul Belmondo).

“It’s right smack in the center of what our DNA is, which is cultural and creative exchanges between France and the United States,” TAFFF deputy director Anouchka van Riel tells The Hollywood Reporter about Nouvelle Vague, adding that an American director leading a French cast and crew offers “an amazing mix for what we are seeking: cultures feeding each other through creativity.”

Other standout titles at this year’s festival include Jafar Panahi‘s It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or after premiering at Cannes and became France’s selection for the international feature Oscar. Also screening at TAFFF are the Isabelle Huppert-led The Richest Woman in the World and the Brigitte Bardot-focused documentary Bardot, along with various TV series and short films.

In addition to its screenings, a highlight of TAFFF’s programming is a DGA-sponsored filmmaker panel with Linklater, Jason Reitman (Saturday Night) and recent Oscar winner Sean Baker (Anora). Former DGA president Taylor Hackford, the Oscar-nominated Ray director, moderates the conversation.

“The subject is the vitality of the feature film and why we must fight to rejuvenate the experience of going into the cinema and seeing a film on the big screen,” Hackford says. “These are people who are working directors, facing an existential crisis in our business. To have that group exchanging with their equals in France is really what the Franco-American Cultural Fund is all about.”

While they are pleased to include splashy names, TAFFF’s organizers pride themselves on introducing fresh filmmaking voices to the American market. Making its debut at the festival this year is the New Horizons program, highlighting work from rising and seasoned French filmmakers who express a unique cinematic vision. Among the titles on the roster are Valérie Donzelli’s At Work, which won best screenplay for Donzelli and Gilles Marchand at the Venice Film Festival, and Claire Denis’ The Fence, starring Tom Blyth and Mia McKenna-Bruce.

“What’s important is to show that the voice of French artists is not a monolith, and that voice is diverse,” emphasizes van Riel. “The majority of the audience — and I’m not only speaking general audience but also industry people — might think of France right now as Emily in Paris. Well, guess what? We are not only the Eiffel Tower.”

Van Riel singles out two titles to illustrate that point, including director Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, which focuses on a lesbian teen navigating life with a Muslim family. The movie debuted at Cannes, where it collected the Queer Palm prize and also won best actress for Nadia Melliti, who will take part in a TAFFF conversation after the screening. The second feature van Riel praises is Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, which also premiered at Cannes and stars Vicky Krieps as a woman fighting her ex-husband for custody of their son after she starts a relationship with a woman. Cambet discussed the film after its Wednesday screening.

“These are remarkable films from an artistic standpoint,” says van Riel, who notes that Love Me Tender is still seeking distribution. “They’re hard films to make because they tell the stories of a gay woman and are not mainstream. It’s two different stories, and they go in two different directions. But this is an example of showing different voices. Festivals are there to champion voices that are unique and different, and that’s what we do at the French Film Festival. It’s so important to the ecosystem.”

TAFFF’s latest lineup comes at an exciting time for the culture, with French filmmakers enjoying recent notable success in connecting with wider American audiences. After winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2023, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture and best actress for star Sandra Hüller, notching a win for the screenplay. Last year’s genre breakout The Substance filmed in France with almost an entirely French crew, going on to nab the makeup Oscar. And of course, there was French director Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, which led all titles at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony with 13 nominations before collecting trophies for best song and supporting actress Zoe Saldaña.

The TAFFF team takes particular pride in the song win for Emilia Pérez. The film had already landed distribution from Netflix when co-chief Ted Sarandos agreed to screen it at last year’s fest, where composers Clément Ducol and Camille led a special concert. This is the impact that organizers hoped to achieve after deciding in 2019 to shift the fest — then known as City of Lights, City of Angels — from spring to a more awards-friendly fall slot.

“We are really the place where you have the more most important [group] of AMPAS members,” says TAFFF executive producer and artistic director Francois Truffart. “You have to be at TAFFF to be part of the campaign. We definitely played a role in the 13 nominations for Emilia Pérez and the [best song] win.”

Meanwhile, the festival continues to look toward the future and expand its audience. For those unable to attend in person, TAFFF offers more than 1,000 film and series titles to rent through its library. Additionally, the festival offers free screenings for area high school students, including a presentation of Nouvelle Vague. As streaming services continue to make international cinema feel more accessible, the hope is that the draw of French projects will grow over time.

Says Truffart: “We know that we’re still a niche market, like any other foreign industry, so it’s always a challenge. The good news is that people get used to watching [streaming] films with subtitles, even if you have the dubbed version. People say, ‘It’s very easy now that the market is open,’ because you have all the streamers that can provide a lot of foreign films, in particular Netflix. But actually, it’s true.”