EVENT DESCRIPTION
Alliance Française de Hong Kong proudly presents the 54th edition of the Hong Kong French Film Festival (HKFFF), the city’s longest-running international film festival. Running from 19 November to 11 December 2025, the Festival marks a landmark year, celebrating 130 years since the invention of Cinema with more than 50 films and 120 screenings.
Hong Kong will also be the first international audience in the world to watch Christophe Barratier’s new film, Children of the Resistance, with Gérard Jugnot in attendance for this historic world premiere. Alongside this milestone premiere, the Festival will showcase a diverse line-up of new and acclaimed works that spotlight the creativity and dynamism of French cinema today.
This year’s red-carpet highlight is Alice Winocour’s Couture (Coutures), which interweaves the lives of three women caught in the frenzy of Paris Fashion Week. At its heart is Ella Rumpf, who plays Angèle, a young French make-up artist with literary ambitions. Through Angèle’s eyes, the audience is invited backstage into the intimate and unseen side of fashion: the long hours, the fragility of dreams and the resilience of those who keep the industry stitched together. Her path intertwines with Maxine, a filmmaker portrayed by Angelina Jolie, who faces a devastating diagnosis, and Ada, a South Sudanese model played by Anyier Anei, as she embarks on her first season in Paris. Together, their lives form an ensemble portrait of creativity, survival and solidarity across generations. Also starring Garance Marillier, as the young seamstress who hems Ada’s runway dress, Couture deftly gazes beyond the glamour to reveal women’s often-overlooked experiences in fashion and film. Shot with unprecedented access inside CHANEL’s historic Paris atelier, Couture balances elegance with intimacy, making it one of the Festival’s most striking showcases. Adding to the excitement, Garance Marillier and Ella Rumpf will attend the Hong Kong French Film Festival in person to present the film and meet audiences, offering a rare opportunity for local cinephiles to engage with two acclaimed actresses emerging on the international stage.
In Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman in the World (La Femme la plus riche du Monde), Isabelle Huppert delivers a commanding performance as Marianne Farrere, a cosmetics heiress whose life is unsettled when she forms a provocative bond with Pierre-Alain, a flamboyant photographer played by Laurent Lafitte. Their platonic yet scandalous companionship unsettles her family, especially her daughter Frédérique, portrayed by Marina Foïs, and begins to unravel the foundations of a dynasty built on privilege and silence. Freely inspired by the Bettencourt affair, in which Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal empire, became the centre of one of France’s most sensational scandals, Klifa transforms a real scandal into a contemporary tragedy of inheritance, power and vulnerability.
Colours of Time (La Venue de l’avenir) is Cédric Klapisch’s lyrical exploration of ancestry and memory, moving between present-day Paris and the Belle Époque. When estranged cousins uncover their ancestor Adèle’s abandoned farmhouse, her story comes to life in 1895 as she departs for the capital in search of freedom. Suzanne Lindon plays Adèle alongside Paul Kircher and Vassili Schneider, bringing depth to a portrait of a generation on the brink of change. 1895 was the year of the Lumière brothers’ first film screening, Sarah Bernhardt’s celebrated Mucha poster and Paul Cézanne’s first solo exhibition. Klapisch situates Adèle’s journey within this moment of artistic ferment, blending cultural landmarks with a story of self-discovery. The film’s evocation of a world on the cusp of modernity resonates strongly with this year’s Festival, which also marks 130 years since the invention of cinema.
Set for international release in January 2026, Children of the Resistance (Les Enfants de la Résistance) will celebrate its world premiere at the Festival in Hong Kong. Gérard Jugnot will attend the festival, lending a special significance to this premiere before the film’s global release. Directed by Christophe Barratier and adapted from the best-selling comic series by Vincent Dugomier and Benoît Ers, the film is set in Nazi-occupied France and follows three courageous children, François, Eusèbe and Lisa, who risk everything to join the underground resistance. Through sabotage missions, coded messages and perilous escapes, their secret struggle becomes a thrilling adventure of bravery and friendship in the face of tyranny. The film stars Lucas Hector, Nina Filbrandt and Artus, alongside Jugnot, bringing intergenerational resonance to this powerful tale.
Jugnot and Barratier will also be celebrated in the Festival’s retrospective programme with The Chorus (Les Choristes), a modern classic first released in 2004. Set in 1948, the film follows Clément Mathieu, an unemployed music teacher who takes a job as proctor in a correctional boarding school for minors. In defiance of the school’s authoritarian director, Mathieu introduces the boys to the transformative power of song. What begins as a fragile choir becomes a story of resilience, hope and the redemptive force of music. The film went on to receive two nominations at the 77th Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Song, marking it as one of the most celebrated French films of its era. Jugnot delivers one of his most beloved performances as Mathieu, reaffirming his central place in French cinema, while Barratier’s sensitive direction established him as one of the leading storytellers of his generation.
No retrospective of French cinema would be complete without Marcel Carné’s masterpiece Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis), often hailed as the greatest French film of all time. Released in 1946, the three-hour epic was nominated for an Academy Award in 1947 for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, cementing its place in world cinema history. At its centre is Garance, an enigmatic courtesan whose allure entangles four men: the idealistic mime Baptiste, the ambitious actor Frédérick, the cynical criminal Lacenaire and the aristocratic Count Edouard. Their lives weave a tragic tapestry of desire and betrayal, played out against a backdrop of theatrical grandeur and political unrest. Filmed during the Nazi occupation of France under extraordinary constraints, Carné’s achievement remains a testament to the resilience of art in the face of adversity. With luminous performances, poetic dialogue and Alexandre Trauner’s legendary set design, Children of Paradise stands as a monument of cinematic history, reminding audiences why the Festival’s celebration of 130 years of cinema is as much about timeless masterpieces as it is about new visions. The retrospective section will feature 15 timeless classics, carefully curated for cinephiles who cherish the enduring beauty of French cinema.
This year’s Festival will also welcome Gérard Jugnot in Hong Kong, where he will meet cinephiles and participate in post-screening Q&A sessions, which offer audiences a rare opportunity to engage directly with one of France’s most beloved actors and directors.
