Schedule:

1:00 PM - The Quiet Son
Q&A with Delphine and Muriel Coulin and Vincent Lindon
Pierre (Vincent Lindon), a widower who has dedicated his life to his two children, is shaken to discover that his older son Fus (Benjamin Voisin) has begun hanging out with violent right-wing nationalists. Whereas their previous collaborations (17 Girls, Rendez-Vous 2012; The Stopover, Rendez-Vous 2016) trained an eye on the experience of women in France, for their third feature the Coulin sisters have applied an equally analytical and empathetic perspective to a decidedly masculine environment. This sobering contemplation of radicalization takes a nuanced look at two equally strong, competing impulses: loyalty to family on one hand, and responsibility toward the greater social good on the other. At its center is the typically masterful Lindon, delivering a career-best performance for which he was awarded Best Actor at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

3:30 PM - Winter in Sokcho
Having never met her long-absent French father, Son-ha (Bella Kim) is startled when artist Yan Kerrand (Roschdy Zem) arrives to stay at the small hotel where she works in a Korean seaside town. The half-Korean literature student and the French outsider form a tentative bond, but Son-ha can’t help but wonder about the truth behind his identity and his reason for visiting. An intimate drama set against the naturally majestic background of its wintry setting, Koya Kamura’s understated triumph sketches out a nascent parental relationship in which newcomer Kim proves a real discovery, more than holding her own against veteran performer Zem (The Innocent, Rendez-Vous 2023). The delicately rendered result is a story of tentative beginnings, cross-cultural bonding, and the never-ending search for self-understanding.

5:00 PM - Free Talk: Frames of Change: Judith Godrèche and Moi Aussi
French actress Judith Godrèche has emerged as a leading figure and force for change for the MeToo movement in the French film industry. Godrèche filed a complaint in 2024 against two French directors for sexual violence when she was a minor (the investigation is still ongoing). She was also one of the first women in France to go public about her experience with Harvey Weinstein. Her powerful short film Moi Aussi, inspired by the over 6,000 messages she received after testifying, premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 81st Cannes Film Festival in 2024. Join Godrèche in a conversation about how her actions impacted her career and shook up the French film industry. A screening of her film Moi Aussi will precede the conversation.

Location: EBM Film Center (AMPH)

6:15 PM - The Marching Band
Q&A with composer Michel Petrossian
They couldn’t be more different: Thibault (Benjamin Lavernhe) is a world-famous orchestra conductor and pianist; Jimmy (Pierre Lottin) is a blue-collar kitchen worker who plays trombone in the local marching band. Separated in their infancy, the two brothers are reunited unexpectedly as adults and, after some initial friction, find themselves growing closer when Thibault decides to help nurture Jimmy’s nascent musical talent. An equally hilarious and affecting crowd-pleaser from Emmanuel Courcol (The Big Hit, Rendez-Vous 2021), this Cannes favorite draws equally nuanced and sensitive portraits of affluence and working-class life in the northern town of Lille to bring texture and substance to a universally resonant story about the power of family. At its center are a pair of sparkling performances from Lavernhe and Lottin, two of France’s most promising rising stars.

9:00 PM - Ghost Trail
Q&A with Jonathan Millet
Two years after being released from Syrian jail, Hamid (Adam Bessa) is making ends meet as a construction worker in the French city of Strasbourg, where, haunted by the memory of his imprisonment, the young man searches tirelessly for the man who tortured him, determined to get his revenge—but what’s the real price of vengeance for the person seeking it? Inspired by true events, Jonathan Millet’s deeply researched thriller excavates the too-little-examined moral dilemmas and political negligence that traumatized migrants must confront amid the struggle to rebuild their lives and take control of their destinies at the margins of contemporary French society, inviting audiences to better empathize with France’s newest residents, and to better understand their place in the world—and our own. A Music Box Films release.