51st Hong Kong French Film Festival

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Hong Kong French Film Festival is celebrating its 51st edition this year, following a successful 50th edition in 2021, receiving more than 11,000 audience. The film festival will take place from November 13 to December 13, 2022 at 6 cinemas across Hong Kong. More than 150 screenings will be shown in Hong Kong City Hall, Broadway Cinematheque, MOViE MOViE Pacific Place, PALACE ifc, Premiere Elements, and M+ Cinema.

This year, we are excited to present you a great selection of 56 films including 37 new films of which four are documentary, 10 programmes dedicated to Claire Denis, and 9 retrospective films in praise of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Luc Godard and Gaspard Ulliel.

Cinema and reflection of society – Women Emancipation and Social Resilience
Cinema is a reflection of the society. Questions are constantly being raised, and discussions are brought up through the big screen. In our 2022 film selection, we are committed to raising the awareness towards the fight for women. To unveil the curtain of the festival, we have selected, Simone: The Journey Of The Century, a biopic directed by Olivier Dahan (La Môme) with Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder as the opening film. Simone Veil is one of the most prominent women in France in the 20th Century. The film is an intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era: her humanist message is still keenly relevant today.

In addition, we would also like to shed the spotlight on social resilience through a selection of films including The Sixth Child (Le Sixième Enfant) by Léopold Legrand and The Super-8 Years (Les Années Super 8) which talk about family and motherhood. Directed by the 2022 Nobel Prize awardee, Annie Ernaux who is one of the very important writers of contemporary French literature, The Super-8 Years (Les Années Super 8) is a short documentary that opens a treasure trove into her family’s memory through the lens. And the film list continues…..One Year, One Night (Un an, une nuit), Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) and November (Novembre). These films are screened exclusively at the Festival and being released at the same time in France. Cinephiles would be able to watch the newest release from Hong Kong.

Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis co-presented with M+
We are thrilled to co-present ‘Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis’ with M+, the first global museum of contemporary visual culture in Asia, as part of M+ Cinema’s Autumn 2022 screening programme. This focus programme celebrates the illustrious career of French filmmaker Claire Denis. In the past thirty years and through her rich body of work, Denis’s films have delved into the mystifying desires of the human heart and the ubiquitous impact of colonialism. Her elliptical storytelling and mood-inducing images evoke our innermost primal instincts and reveal marks left on the human psyche by sociocultural developments. Whether portraying the unadulterated beauty of human connection in Chocolat (1988) and 35 Shots of Rum (2008) or grappling with our destructive tendencies in Bastards (2013) and Trouble Every Day (2001), Denis takes audiences to places where few filmmakers would dare.

In Praise of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Luc Godard and Gaspard Ulliel
In 2022, we have lost two significant French movie icons, Jean-Louis Trintignant, the man appeared in more than 200 films with a career spanning across seven decades and Jean-Luc Godard, the legendary Franco-Swiss director of the French New Wave. In the beginning of the year, Gaspard Ulliel passed away at only 37 years old.

The honour was ours to have welcomed Gaspard Ulliel in 2014 Hong Kong French Film Festival. Gaspard Ulliel was kind and dedicated to promoting French films to Hong Kong cinephiles. In light of the loss of the three significant French movie actors and director, a selection of 9 films is dedicated to the memory of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Gaspard Ulliel and Jean-Luc Godard. The selection of the works of Jean-Louis Trintignant includes My Night At Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud), A Man and a Woman (Un Homme Et Une Femme), The Most Beautiful Years of a Life, and Amour. In memory of Jean-Luc Godard, the classics Breathless and Pierrot le Fou will be screened. A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche De Fiancailles by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and It’s Only The End Of The World (Juste La Fin Du Monde) by Xavier Dolan will be presented in honor of Gaspard Ulliel.

Q&A Zoom Sessions
A series of post-screenings Q&A Zoom sessions will be organized with Davy Chou, the director of Return to Seoul and Caroline Monnet, the director of Bootlegger. More event info will be released on the festival website and social media.