French Film Festival

The French Film Festival returns to Ciné Lumière from 18 to 29 November, with a best-of run following from 30 November to 2 December. It's the annual showcase of French cinema in London, run by the French Institute in the UK, and this year it's independently curated by Ciné Lumière with support from Unifrance, Eurostar, the Pelham London, Pol Roger, Les Néréides, and Moët Hennessy, alongside a new partnership with the Cinéma du réel festival.

The opening night gala is A Woman's Life (La Vie d'une femme), directed by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet and starring Léa Drucker and Mélanie Thierry, followed by a Q&A with Drucker and Bourgeois-Tacquet. The closing night brings the UK premiere of The Birthday Party (Histoires de la Nuit), directed and adapted by Léa Mysius and starring Monica Bellucci. In between, the programme includes Fjord by Cristian Mungiu, Parallel Tales by Asghar Farhadi, Coward by Lukas Dhont, and Collapse by Anat Even. Restored classics La Note bleue and La Boum also screen, and there are Q&As with Sophie Marceau, Sandrine Kiberlain, Laetitia Masson, and Christophe Honoré.

Ciné Lumière is the home of French cinema in London, an ornate red-brick South Kensington venue that screens over 400 films a year and welcomes more than 50,000 patrons. The cinema, run by the French Institute in the UK, which was founded in 1910, began an extensive renovation in 2026 under the patronage of Kristin Scott Thomas, with an 'Adopt a Seat' campaign to support its Art Deco features.

Beyond the screenings, the Institut Français salons house two exhibitions: one marking the centenary of the École Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière, one of the world's oldest cinematography and photography schools, and another marking the bicentenary of photography. Tickets start from £10.