Around a hundred films from all corners of the French-speaking world are on the menu for the 29the Edition of the Cinemania Festival, which takes place from January 1stum in several Montreal cinemas until November 12th. Like every year, moviegoers can catch the premiere of some of the most anticipated French-language feature films of the year. Here are seven you shouldn’t miss:
The Goldman Trial
Funfilm distribution
Selected to open the 29th edition of the festival on November 1 at the Cinéma Impérial, this legal drama by French director Cédric Kahn (Fête de famille) tells of the second trial of Pierre Goldman in 1975. This far-left activist was convicted of life imprisonment four robberies, one of which resulted in the deaths of two pharmacists.
Love and forests
AXIA MOVIES
Love and the Forests, a new film by French director Valérie Donzelli (War is Declared), was presented in competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival and tells the story of a woman’s descent into hell under the influence of a possessive and violent man. Virginie Efira and Melvil Poupaud share the lead roles in this psychological thriller.
The successor
Enttract Films
Presented in official competition at the San Sebastian Festival in Spain last month, this new thriller from French filmmaker Xavier Legrand (Jusqu’à la garde) stars Quebecois Marc-André Grondin in the role of artistic director of a French haute couture house -Designer must return to Quebec to settle the estate of her father, who has just died of a heart attack. The cast also includes Yves Jacques, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Vincent Leclerc and Louis Champagne.
Second round
AZ MOVIES
Three years after his delicious Adieu les cons, French actor and director Albert Dupontel goes behind the scenes of politics in this new comedy, which will be presented at the end of the festival on November 12th. The second round involves a disgraced journalist (played by Cécile de France) who is assigned to follow the presidential election’s favorite candidate (Dupontel), an heir to a powerful French family and a newcomer to politics.
A difficult year
SPHERE FILMS
The directors of the hit comedy “Intouchables” Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano are back with this eighth feature film that reflects the current problems of today’s society by addressing topics such as over-indebtedness, environmental anxiety and excessive consumption. In “A Difficult Year,” a comedy-drama, Pio Marmai and Jonathan Cohen play two indebted men who join a group of environmental activists.
Leave the night
ENTRY FILMS
The Quebec-Belgian director Delphine Girard won the Audience Award in the parallel “Giornate degli Autori” section of the Venice Film Festival with this first feature film, in which the Quebec actress Anne Dorval plays the leading role. Presented in the Films du Québec competition, Quitter la nuit tells the story of a young woman who is attacked by a man during a party gone wrong.
You’ll never know
AXIA MOVIES
Six years after the release of his zombie comedy The Hungry, director Robin Aubert changes direction with this new film. It’s about an old man who is locked in his CHSLD room at the end of his life and does everything he can to see the woman he loves again for the last time. “You will never know” is one of the eight feature films presented in the “Films du Québec” competition.
The 29th French-language film festival Cinemania will take place from November 1st to 12th in several Montreal cinemas, including the Cinéma Impérial, the Cinéma du Musée, the Cinéma du Parc and the Cinémathèque québécoise. Further details about the program: festivalcinemania.com