The French Film Festival UK returns for its 34th edition from 4 November to 9 December 2026, with a rich and diverse programme of contemporary French and francophone cinema, award-winning films, compelling new voices and landmark classics.
Screening at more than 40 venues across the UK, the festival brings audiences an exceptional selection of films celebrating the vitality, imagination and extraordinary range of French-language filmmaking.
Venues in Scotland include the Birks Cinema (Aberfeldy), Eden Court (Inverness), Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre (Dumfries), the GFT (Glasgow), Byre Theatre (St. Anrews), the Filmhouse (Edinburgh) and Institut Français d'Ecosse (Edinburgh).
Among the major highlights are All of a Sudden, the latest film from acclaimed Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose leading actresses Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the Best Actress award at Cannes; Coward (Les Braves), Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s powerful and unconventional First World War drama, is Belgium’s Oscar contender whose two leads shared Cannes’ Best Actor award; and Violette, the eagerly anticipated return to cinema of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amélie, after a 13-year absence.
The programme also features The Birthday Party, Léa Mysius’ unsettling thriller starring Monica Bellucci and Benoît Magimel, and The Money Maker, Jean-Paul Salomé’s gripping historical crime drama about a Polish master counterfeiter.
This year’s programme has a particularly strong historical dimension, reflecting on war, collaboration, moral responsibility and the lasting impact of conflict. In the wake of the phenomenal success of the two De Gaulle films at home and internationally, French cinema continues to find new ways of confronting the country’s past. From the First World War setting of Coward to the moral complexities of the Occupation explored in Notre Salut and Rays and Shadows, the festival examines how individual choices and collective memory shape the present.
A distinctive and highly successful part of the festival is its extensive education programme, which brings French-language cinema directly into classrooms as well as onto cinema screens. Thousands of schoolchildren across the UK will have the opportunity to experience films in French, supported by specially curated educational activity. By introducing young audiences to the pleasures of cinema and the richness of francophone culture, the programme helps build the audiences of tomorrow.
With its combination of acclaimed international filmmakers, exciting emerging talent, major performances, historical reflection, animation, documentaries and classic cinema, the 34th French Film Festival UK continues its commitment to bringing the best of French-language filmmaking to audiences throughout the country.
Discover the full programme on the French Film Festival UK website.
Festival Director Richard Mowe said: "With the phenomenal success of the two De Gaulle films at home and abroad, French-language cinema has been on a roll as never before over the last few months. Its richness, diversity and sheer originality is reflected in the official selection of the one and only French Film Festival UK which proudly is made in Scotland but shared across the nations. The films all speak for themselves: there is nothing left to say apart from our rallying cry over the decades: Vive le cinéma!"
The French Film Festival UK gratefully acknowledges the support of its funders Screen Scotland, sponsors and cultural partners.
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Image credits
Header image: The Money Maker, courtesy of French Film Festival UK,
Second image: Violette, courtesy of French Film Festival UK