The next best thing to springtime in Paris… as in the actual city, is Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York. The annual festival, curated and hosted by Film Lincoln Center (FLC), ushers in what they consider to be the best contemporary cinema out of France. In past years of the festivals three-decades history, there has usually been a deft combination of genres, including drama, comedy, suspense and documentaries, with emphasis on the first two categories. This year looks to be keeping in that tradition as this reviewer got screening previews of several selections. Below are a few worth viewing at the festival or when (or if) available for streaming at a later date.

The Stranger / L’Étranger, François Ozon (director) 
This unique and intense period drama serves as the festival’s “Opening Night Film,” which typically is a positioning of honor, indicating quality distinction. They are not wrong in that because although this is from the highly regarded and prolific filmmaker who’s been a festival regular for decades, “The Stranger” is evidence that he is still creating at an impressive level and not waining. After working with Benjamin Voisin (Meursault) for the actor’s breakout role in “Summer of 85,” Ozon reunites with star for a new adaptation of Albert Camus’s novel, including bringing in Algeria to the race/racism thematic and visual foreground in this adaptation. 

The story takes place in 1930s Algeria when the daily life of a Frenchman, Meursault, seemingly indifferent and without feeling, finds out about the death of his mother. Soon after, he befriends a neighbor, leading to a shocking and fateful encounter on a beach. Shooting in a stark texture of black and white, Ozon uses that to the period, setting and the main character’s obtuse nature.

Director: Francois Ozon
Writers: Albert Camus, Francois Ozon, Phillippe Plazzo
Country of origin: France
Runtime: 124m
Language: French with English subtitles
Production company: Gaumont

Enzo, Robin Campillo (director)
This marks the last of a many years collaboration between Campill and writer/editor, Laurent Cantet, resulting in six films. When Cantet passed away in 2024, Campillo filmed their final joint writing project in his honor. Sixteen-year-old Enzo (Eloy Pohu) is a Talented but unmotivated student who failing at school and feels very different from his wealthy, but well-meaning parents (Pierfrancesco Favino and Élodie Bouchez). Seeking to find his own way and to his parents’ concern, he drops out of school and joins a home construction crew. Even at that he struggles to find focus as a construction site apprentice. Later, when a friendship is formed with a co-worker, migrant Ukrainian laborer Vlad (Maksym Slivinskyi), Enzo finds his footing and is pulled out of his.

“Enzo” unfolds into a quiet and interesting coming-of-age story, with very believable performances by all, especially the young lead. The film is poignant and worthy inclusion of this legacy of nuanced, up-to-the-minute social realism films by Campill and Cantet.

Director: Robin Campillo
Writers: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Country of origin: France/Belgium/Italy
Runtime: 102m
Language: French and Ukrainian with English subtitles
Production company: StudioCanal

Colours of Time, Cédric Klapisch (director)
Keeping in his beloved tradition of thoughtful and character-filled stories, mixing drama with humor. and incorporating large ensemble casts, filmmaker Cédric Klapisch delivers another cinematic charmer with “Colors of Time,” but with an unusual twist. Four distant cousins connected through an ancestry online agency gather at a dilapidated family house in Normandy. The film follows each character’s present-day reunion and their ancestor’s late-19th-century adventures as one of the ancestors arrives in Paris in 1895 to search for her elusive mother. Soon afterwards she befriends painters and photographers as the city enters the Belle Époque. Traversing between time periods and a different set of characters, this, this begins a unique element for Klapisch.

Although “Colours of Time” lacks some complexity and Klapisch fans may initially be pulled off guard to the juxtaposition between time periods and characters, it is undeniably delightful.

Director: Cédric Klapisch
Writers: Cédric Klapisch, Santiago Amigorena
Countries of origin: France/Belgium
Runtime: 124m
Language: French with English subtitles
Production company: StudioCanal

The Little Sister /  La Petite Dernière, Hafsia Herzi (director)
For her fourth directorial installment, Herzi focuses on a Muslim teenager going from her last year in high school to her first in college while navigating religion and sexual identity issues.
Fatima (Nadia Melliti) lives with her close-knit Algerian immigrant family in Paris, but fears what could happen should they, and her community overall, realize that she is a lesbian. While exploring her identity and sexual desires, Fatima meets Ji-na (Park Ji-Min) and falls in love. With both having life, and in the case of Ji-na, mental health challenges to overcome, their relationship is tested.

Newcomer Melliti gives a nuanced performance of a quiet and complex character coming into her own. It’s understandable her Best Actress awards at Cannes and Lumières for this performance.

Director: Hafsia Herzi
Writers: Fatima Daas, Hafsia Herzi
Countries of origin: France/Germany
Runtime: 113m
Languages: French and Arabic with English subtitles
Production companies: June Films, Katuh Studio, Arte France Cinema

The 31st Rendez-Vous With French Cinema takes place March 5-15 and features 22 films, with filmmakers and special guests appearing for select Q & A. Go to filmlinc.org for festival details and to purchase tickets.

SHOWCASING  UNIQUE FILMS/STORYTELLING FROM AFRICA & DIASPORA

This year’s theme for the 33rd New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) is “As the Stars Sow the Earth.” With that in mind, the festival celebrates cosmic agents associated with memory, will, and possibility into Africa and its diasporas. Based on the festival’s theme and lineup, made of diverse genres and filmmakers, the two things that seem to resonate most are preserving the history of Africa, politically and artistically, and recognizing how the continent has been the target of and has overcome colonization and exploitation of natural resources.

“Across this year’s selection, filmmakers are reimagining the landscapes we inherit—drawing from ancestral wisdom not as something to leave behind, but as a source of renewal and possibility,” said Mahen Bonetti for the festival’s press release. Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of AFF. “Many of the directors, including a strong group making their first features, open new ways of seeing, rooted in land, spirit, and the worlds we share. In these films, what sustains us becomes a kind of wealth, guiding how we envision and shape futures on our own terms. Together, they offer glimpses of brighter horizons, reminding us that even in difficult times, life takes root in surprising and extraordinary ways.”

The festival’s centerpiece film, the documentary, “The Eyes of Ghana” by Ben Proudfoot is a shining example of all of the above. In the 50s and 60s, Kwame Nkrumah was the country’s leader who ushered his people into freedom from British colonizers. His goal was clear from the start, first Ghana, then the whole of Africa through development of a united states system similar to the U.S.A. Documenting the rise and fall of Nkrumah and this pivotal period for Ghana was cinematographer Chris Hesse. Although 90, plus, years old, Hesse is still a vibrant part of Africa’s film community as a film school educator and historian. Hesse, along with Hesse and young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu combine efforts to rescue, restore and repatriate more than 1,000 films that were long thought to be destroyed by Nkrumah.

Their journey through this process is poignantly and honestly captured in “The Eyes of Ghana.” Hesse and Afonu are a great pairing, authentically showcasing the country’s film community. Their deep love and respect for one another is evident and serves as a wonderful catalyst for the film’s progression. Two time Academy Award winner Ben Proudfoot (Best Documentary Short) doesn’t shy from the complicated history of Ghana while leaving viewers hopeful for its future. The film was executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and won the Audience Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Director/Writer: Ben Proudfoot
Country of origin: Ghana
Run time:  90m
Language: English, Twi, and Ga with English subtitles

In that same spirit and through the genre of narrative feature film, “Afrotōpia” by David Mboussou, shows the struggle for artistry through film and the importance of preserving African land and resources. Ezekiel, a 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker, lives in the Congo Basin with his powerful businessman father, Maurice. The two are at odds as Maurice despises his son’s artistic ways and insists that if he lives in his house, he must join the family business. During his indoctination, Ezekiel discovers the plans to exploit a sacred forest, the last refuge of an indigenous community. 

Director/Writer: David Mboussou
Country of origin: Gabon
Run time: 128m
Language: French with English subtitles

Opening this year’s festival is a layered film with four women at its core. “Promised Sky” by
Erige Sehiri follows a brief period in the life of Marie, a pastor and former journalist who unofficially takes in a young orphaned girl. She also shares her house with Naney, a young mother seeking a better future, and Jolie, a student carrying her family’s expectations. All involved navigate poverty, displacement and lost loves in an uncertain world in Tunisia. What “Promised Sky” lacks in smooth transitions and dialogue as well a more appealing look, it makes up for in its themes and performances.

Director/Writer: Erige Sehiri
Country of origin: France/Tunisia/Qatar
Run time: 95m
Language: French and Arabic with English subtitles

In addition to the 14 feature films and documentaries of NYAFF, the line up also includes a robust shorts collection, post screening Q&A with filmmakers and talent, and special programming featuring digital exhibition. Unlike most of the other Film Lincoln Center (FLC) festivals, this one moves around the city and even has time in Brooklyn. The festival kicks off on May 1 with a Town Hall at The Africa Center, heads to FLC May 6-12, travels to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem (May 15 to 17). The Brooklyn Academy of Music/BAM will take over festival host duties starting May 22 through May 28 as Film Africa, and then closes with an outdoor screening at St. Nicholas Park on May 30.


For more details about the NYAFF and to purchase tickets go to https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/new-york-african-film-festival/?tab=films