French Film Festival takes to Porto from 29th October to 4th November

The French Cinema Festival is back for the 2020 edition and features premieres and a selection of French films that haven't yet been released in Portugal. The festival tours four cities - Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Almada and it takes to the Invicta from 29th October to 4th November, at Teatro Rivoli and Cine Trindade.

French actress Delphine Seyrig, who won international recognition with her part in Alain Resnais's film "Last Year at Marienbad", is the honoured figure at the festival, which will present a retrospective of Seyrig's films, in partnership with the Cinemateca, namely "A Doll's House", by Joseph Losey, "baisers Volés", by François Truffaut, or "La Musica", by Marguerite Duras and Paul Seban. And also documentaries that she directed jointly with Carole Roussopoulos and Ioana Wieder, "As Trêa Portuguesas" (based on the Três Marias - Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta e Maria Velho da Costa). 

The French Film Festival also takes to the big screen the film "Miss", by Portuguese French director Ruben Alves, who directed the box-office hit film "A Gaiola Dourada ", aka "The Gilded Cage" (La Cage Dorée), a French-Portuguese comedy film released in 2013. It won the "People's Choice Award" at the 26th European Film Awards. There is also a period movie - "De Gaulle" - directed by Gabriel Le Bomin.

The festival is organised in two sections, the "First Chance" that features French films that have not been yet released in Portuguese movie theatres, and a "Second Chance", with films that debuted in 2020 and whose screening was interrupted by the pandemic. This is the last opportunity to see films such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma; les Misérables, by Ladj Ly; or J'Accuse, by Roman Polanski.

The French Film festival is organised by ACID - Association du Cinema Indépendant pour sa Diffusion, the Institut Français du Portugal, and the French Embassy in Portugal; as well as the support of SERENA Productions, in partnership with Alliance Française do Porto, Porto City Hall and Rivoli.

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