We are honoured to welcome our Special Guest of the 2026 Cork French Film Festival, acclaimed director Régis Wargnier, with the support of the Embassy of France in Ireland.
Mr. Wargnier was the recipient of the American Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1993 with Indochine. He also won BAFTA, Golden Globes, Felix, Goya and César awards for this film. Among other films directed by Régis Wargnier are La Femme de ma vie (1986), Une Femme française (1995), Est-Ouest (1999), Douce France (2009).

Régis Wargnier will present his latest feature, Redress/ La Réparation at the CFFF and participate in a Q&A after the screening.
In addition, he will also conduct a Masterclass in UCC hosted by our festival partner, the Film and Screen Media Department.

Redress / La Réparation

Régis Wargnier / France / 2025 / 104 mins
With Julia de Nunez, Clovis Cornillac, Julien de Saint-Jean

Exploring themes of mystery and obsession, this ‘gastronomic thriller’ stars Clovis Cornillac and Julia de Nunez, exploring the disappearance of a Michelin-starred chef just before receiving his third star. His daughter Clara inherits the restaurant amid media frenzy. Two years later, she is invited to a food congress in Taiwan.

Cork Premiere

Date & Time: Thursday 5th March 7.30 pm

Details: Alice Winocour / France, USA / 2025 / 106 mins

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Louis Garrel, Guillaume Marbeck, Ella Rumpf

In French and English, with English subtitles

The captivating fashion drama Couture is a quiet, observational picture about creative women finding solace in one another. Anchored by a star-turn from Angelina Jolie, speaking in French with impressive fluency, Couture is a compelling film set in the Parisian fashion industry, that weaves together multiple threads in which women of different ages and cultural backgrounds seek to wrest control of their destinies. Jolie plays Maxine Walker, a film director who’s making a short film for Paris Fashion Week when she learns that she has cancer. As she grapples with the difficult news, Couture also reveals the stories of two other women: nervous South Sudanese model Ada (Anyier Anei) and writerly makeup artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf), whose respective artistic struggles form a dreamlike mosaic that’s as intricate as lace.

“Angelina Jolie is a tour de force in Alice Winocour’s Paris fashion drama” Screen Daily.

Cork premiere

Programme duration: 83 mins

We are very happy to introduce a selection of outstanding shorts into the programme, with the support of the Embassies of Belgium, France and Luxembourg in Ireland.

A Walk into the Afterlife

Jiyun Jeong / Luxembourg / 2025 / 4 mins
A cat walks through a 18th-century Korean village during the early morning to a sacred tree, which serves as a portal to the afterlife.

Upper

Lennert Madou / Belgium / 2024 / 15 mins
Waiting for an asteroid to pass through the sky, two friends play around a remote landscape, driven by a curious urge to constantly aim higher.
Best Short Oostende Film Festival 2025

Sweet Burn / Brûlure Douce

Jade Debeugny / Belgium / 2025 / 28 mins
Lou, a 16-year-old boy, is invited for the summer vacation to the grandparents of Paul, a classmate. Their budding friendship strengthens as the days go by…
Grand Prix, Best Belgian Short, Brussels Short Film Festival

Two People Exchanging Saliva / Deux personnes échangeant de la salive

Natalie Musteata, Alexandre Singh / France / 2024 / 36 mins
In a society where kissing is punishable by death and people pay for things by receiving slaps in the face, Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store.
Nominated for the 2026 César Awards and short-listed for the 98th Academy Awards

Irish premieres

Details: Eric Lamhène / Luxembourg / 2024 / 101 mins

Starring: Carla Juri, Véronique Tshanda Beya, Esperanza Martin González-Quevedo, Alessia Raschella

In French, with English subtitles
Emma is whisked away in the dead of night, covered in bruises, and unexpectedly pregnant. Finding a new home in a women’s shelter, she rediscovers lost facets of herself. Among the women and children living in the shelter, individual traumas intertwine. Despite their differences, a delicate sisterhood emerges.

Emotionally raw, empathetic, and intensely honest, this deeply moving and ultimately cathartic drama is a display of women’s strength.

This film is Luxembourg’s official submission for the 2026 Oscars in the Best International Feature category.

Free online event presented by the French Embassy & the Alliance Française Network in Ireland.

Irish Premiere

Details: François Ozon / France / 2025 / 142 mins

Starring: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin

Summer, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming clerk in his early thirties, attends his mother’s funeral. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a colleague randomly encountered at the local baths, and quickly slips back into routine. However, daily life is soon disrupted by his volatile neighbour who draws Meursault into an altercation involving an ex-lover. And then, one blisteringly hot afternoon, an inexplicable event occurs on a beach, one that will see Meursault’s very moral standing brought to question…

“A true gem in every respect. Ozon achieves perfection with a sublime adaptation of Albert Camus’s legendary novel that is captivating, refined, faithful and yet highly personal.” Cineuropa

Nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting actor, Best Photography and Best Music, in the 2026 César Awards

Cork Premiere

Details: Henri-Georges Clouzet / France / 1960 / 127 mins

Starring: Brigitte Bardot, Charles Vanel, Sami Frey, Marie-Jose Nat

Remembering Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot, actor, singer, animal rights campaigner and French icon died in Saint-Tropez in December 2025, aged 91. She achieved international fame in 1956 with the Roger Vadim directed Et Dieu créa la Femme / And God Created Woman and went on to appear in some 50 more films before giving up acting to devote herself to defending animal rights. Despite various controversies, Bardot attained the status of a French national monument, posing for the statue of Marianne, the symbol of the Republic, in 1969.

“Her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne: Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom.” French president, Emmanuel Macron

Ms. Bardot told a French newspaper that she considered La Vérité, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated 1960 crime drama, the only good film she ever made.

Beautiful, troubled Dominique Marceau (Brigitte Bardot) came to bohemian Paris to escape the suffocation of provincial life, only to wind up in a courtroom, accused of a terrible crime: the murder of her lover (Sami Frey). As the trial commences and the lawyers begin tangling over Dominique’s fate, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated La Vérité delves into her past, reconstructing her struggle to find a foothold in the city. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of an impulsive young woman misunderstood and mistreated by those around her, and of her ultimately tragic affair with an up-and-coming conductor. With an astonishing performance by Bardot, Clouzot’s affecting and intricately constructed film—a huge late-career success for the French master—renders a harsh verdict against a hypocritical and moralistic society.

Won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film, 1961

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1961

Details: Dominik Moll / France / 2025 /115 mins

Starring: Léa Drucker, Jonathan Turnbull, Mathilde Roehrich

Stéphanie, a police officer working for Internal Affairs, is assigned to a case involving a young man severely wounded during a tense and chaotic demonstration in Paris. While she finds no evidence of illegitimate police violence, the case takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.

César Award Nominations: Best Film, Director, Actress, Script, Photography, Editing, Sound, Music

Cork Premiere

Details: Cédric Jimenez / France / 2025 / 106 mins

Starring: Gilles Lellouche, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Louis Garrel, Romain Duris

In the near future, Paris has been divided into three zones that separate social classes, and where the artificial intelligence ‘Alma’ has revolutionized police work. Until its inventor is assassinated, and Salia and Zem, two police officers with completely opposing views, are forced to collaborate to investigate.

César Award Nominations: Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design.

Cork Premiere

Details: Antoine Lanciaux / France / 2025 / 77 mins / animation

Family Film

“A beautiful feature, depicting a little girl’s summertime investigation into her family’s past with great narrative and visual tenderness.

Wholly made with cut paper, The Songbirds’ Secret proves to be a work of great sensitivity, full of the softness of childhood and typical experiences of holidays in the countryside (woodland and farmland creatures, tractors, old mopeds, casual adventures, etc.). Imbuing the film with a spirit which seems half-way between The Famous Five and Scooby-Doo and which is highly accessible to younger audiences, the director spins a delicate yarn touching upon family ties (and wounds) which have been undone by the vagaries of life, while slowly and suggestively drawing the most out of the story’s natural setting. It results in a luminous and visually beautiful film which is both humble and technically subtle, a movie which will win over the youngest viewers, stir up good summer memories for older audiences.” Cineuropa

Best Animation/Animated Feature, Golden Goblet Award, Shanghai International Film Festival, China

Audience Award, Lucas Film Festival, Germany

Irish Premiere

Details: Marcel Barelli / Switzerland / 2025 / 72 mins / Animation

Screened with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ireland.

In 1811, Mary Anning, an inquisitive and tenacious twelve-year-old girl, spends her days searching for fossils. Her father passed on this passion to her, but her life suddenly changes when he disappears, leaving behind a mysterious drawing and a struggling family.

Determined to help her mother and brother, Mary tries to uncover the secret of the drawing.

She will discover so much more than just fossils: friendships, adventures, and the very start of palaeontology.

Locarno Kids Award, Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland

Irish Premiere