Since launching in Australia in 1989, the Alliance Française French Film Festival has grown into the country’s largest celebration of contemporary French cinema – and the biggest event of its kind outside France.
Over nearly four decades, it has charted the evolution of an industry shaped by New Wave pioneers like François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Agnès Varda, and renewed by modern auteurs such as Jacques Audiard and Julia Ducournau. The 2026 edition continues that lineage, pairing Cannes premieres with box-office hits, star-led dramas and classic revivals across cities nationwide – a snapshot of a national cinema that remains formally adventurous, politically alert and endlessly watchable.
For our selects from the 2026 film festival programme, read on...
1. La Venue De L’avenir (Colours of Time) by Cédric Klapisch
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
Officially selected to open the Cannes Film Festival 2025, it stars RUSSH digital cover star Suzanne Lindon, alongside Abraham Wapler and Julia Piaton. Set in a long-abandoned Normandy estate where four cousins uncover traces of a 19th-century woman’s life, the film elegantly weaves past and present while exploring the invisible ties that echo across generations.
2. Avignon (Rodrigue in Love) by Johann Dionnet
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
Selected to close the Alliance Française French Film Festival, and set amid the frenzy of France’s most famous theatre festival, Avignon is a romantic comedy with backstage sparkle. Starring Baptiste Lecaplain, Alison Wheeler and Lyès Salem, the film follows an unlikely love story unfolding between rehearsals, rivalries and late-night confessions – a buoyant send-off for the festival’s 37th edition.
3. La Femme La Plus Riche Du Monde (The Richest Woman in the World) by Thierry Klifa
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
With French icon Isabelle Huppert front and centre, La Femme La Plus Riche Du Monde delivers glossy intrigue and high-society drama. The story dives into the private life of an ultra-wealthy power broker whose fortune masks a web of emotional and political entanglements — the kind of sophisticated spectacle festival audiences flock to.
4. Alpha by Julia Ducournau
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
From the director who redefined modern French genre cinema comes Alpha, a striking and visceral new work exploring identity, fear and transformation. True to Ducournau’s signature style, the film promises provocative visuals and emotional punch in equal measure.
5. The Little Sister (La Petite Dernière) by Hafsia Herzi
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
A tender and fearless portrait of adolescence, La Petite Dernière follows a young woman navigating faith, sexuality and family expectation in contemporary France. Featuring breakout star Nadia Melliti, it’s one of the program’s most emotionally resonant discoveries.
6. Vie Privée (A Private Life) by Rebecca Zlotowski
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
In Vie Privée, Hollywood royalty meets Parisian mystery. Jodie Foster plays a woman forced to confront long-buried secrets after her carefully curated life begins to unravel — a sleek psychological drama anchored by a magnetic performance.
7. Un Homme et une Femme (A Man and a Woman) by Claude Lelouch
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
One of French cinema’s most enduring romances returns to the big screen with Un Homme et une Femme. Starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant, the timeless love story — set against windswept beaches and racetracks — remains a masterclass in longing, chance encounters and emotional restraint.
8. Gourou (Guru) by Yann Gozlan
Find a ticket: available from 5 February on the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website.
Dark, slick and unsettling, Gourou stars Pierre Niney and Holt McCallany in a tale of obsession and manipulation. As a charismatic figure draws followers into his orbit, the film tightens into a chilling study of power, belief and control.
Festival dates: major cities
- Sydney, NSW: 3 March – 8 April
- Melbourne, VIC: 4 March – 8 April
- Brisbane, QLD: 5 March – 8 April
- Canberra, ACT: 5 March – 8 April
- Perth, WA: 12 March – 15 April
- Adelaide, SA: 18 March – 22 April
Festival dates: regional locations
- Byron Bay, NSW: 6 March – 2 April
- Ballina, NSW: 7 March – 2 April
- Ballarat, VIC: 5 March – 8 April
- Gold Coast, QLD: 19 March – 8 April
- Hobart, TAS: 9 April – 19 April
- Victor Harbor, SA: 25 March – 1 April
- Bunbury, WA: 25 March – 29 March
- Bendigo, VIC: 17 April – 19 April
- Warrawong, NSW: 3 April – 14 April
- Katoomba, NSW: 19 March – 29 March
- Geelong, VIC: 16 April – 28 April
- Darwin, NT: 23 April – 26 April
