Featured Films:
 

Le Nouveau

Benoit, the new kid at school, is bullied by a gang of arrogant boys. Determined not to be pushed around, Benoit organizes a big party, but only three students turn up. What if this bunch of losers was to be the best gang ever?
 

The Girl Without Hands

In hard times, a miller sells his daughter to the Devil. Protected by her purity, she escapes but is deprived of her hands. Walking away from her family, she encounters the goddess of water, a gentle gardener and a prince in his castle. A long journey towards the light…
 

Swagger

A teen-movie documentary, Swagger carries us in the midst of the astonishing minds of eleven teenagers growing up in one of the most underprivileged neighborhood in France. Despite their life difficulties, Aulnay's and Sevran's kids have dreams and ambitions. And no one will take that from them!
 

Rafiki

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.
 

The painting

A chateau, flowering gardens, a threatening forest, here is what, for mysterious reasons, a Painter has left incomplete. Three kinds of characters live in this painting: the Toupins, who are entirely painted, the Pafinis, who lack a few colors, and the Reufs, who are only sketches.

Considering themselves superior, the Toupins take over power, chase the Pafinis from the chateau, and enslave the Reufs. Convinced that only the Painter can restore harmony by finishing the painting, Ramo, Lola, and Plume decided to go looking for him.

Throughout the adventure, questions will follow one after the other: What has become of the Painter? Why did he abandon them? Why did he begin destroying some of his paintings? Will they one day know the Painter's secret?
 

Les Pépites

Two worlds colliding for the best. The children of Phnom Penh scavenging the dump-site to survive and a recently retired couple discovering Cambodia.

This is the extraordinary human story of Christian and Marie France and how they changed the lives of more than 10,000 kids over 20 years. For a Child Smile is born.
 

The White Knights

Jacques Arnault, head of Sud Secours NGO, is planning a high impact operation : he and his team are going to exfiltrate 300 orphans victims of Chadian civil war and bring them to French adoption applicants.

Françoise Dubois, a journalist, is invited to come along with them and handle the media coverage for this operation. Completely immersed in the brutal reality of a country at war, the NGO members start losing their convictions and are faced with the limits of humanitarian intervention.
 

Keteke

It's the 80s rail service system, and the train is the only means of transport from the outskirts. A couple - BOI (Adjetey Anang) and ATSWEI (Lydia Forson) is bent on delivering their first baby in Akete but misses their first train.

A wrong decision finds them in the middle of nowhere. Will they make it on time for the delivery, or, risk losing the baby and mother?
 

The Together Project

Samir, a lanky forty-year-old crane operator in Montreuil, on the outskirts of Paris, falls madly in love with Agathe. As she is a swimming coach at the local pool, he decides to take lessons with her, even though he is a perfect swimmer.

His ploy to get closer to her only lasts three lessons - Agathe hates liars! Selected to represent the Seine-Saint-Denis region at the 10th International Congress of Swimming Coaches, Agathe flies off to Iceland. Smitten, Samir has no other choice than to follow her...
 

Corporate

Emilie is a bright young workaholic manager in Human Ressources, working for a huge French agro-food company. Ambitious and dedicated to her job, she is a good soldier, ready to put ruthless methods of management into practice to meet the higher-ups' requirements.

But, one day, one of the employees commits suicide at the company in front of her. Afflicted by the terrific death of her colleague, she will eventually realize that the company has to take its responsability too.

While an investigation in underway, stuck between her traumatized colleagues and under pressure of a powerful hierarchy, she will have to get by on her own.

Short films
 

The Elephant And The Bicycle

An elephant lives in a town among people and works as a street cleaner. One day, he sees a big billboard advertising a bicycle. It seems the perfect size for him! This is the minute the elephant’s life changes : he has to get this bicycle whatever it costs him.
 

In a cage

It’s the story of an encounter: a caged bear who can’t sing meets a little bird who can’t fly but who can sing beautifully. Their friendship will be mutually beneficial and together they will overcome their disabilities.
 

The sense of touch

Chloe and Louis are deaf and mute. They are secretly in love but they don’t admit it. Their gestures substitute for words. They dance, each word is choreography. One evening, Louis decides to invite her for dinner.

But, when she arrives, he realizes that she brought two lost kittens. He chooses to ignore his extreme allergy to cats, but it is very difficult for him to relax.
 

Afrique sur Seine

Denied the authorisation he needed to film in Sénégal under the colonial administration, Viera decided to film his first short feature in Paris. The film recounts the life of African students in Paris, their encounters and the nostalgia they felt far from their native land.
 

The Wordcutter

In a country where people literally feed on letters from words gathered in trees, reading is vital not to die… of boredom. Some books, however, are forbidden because of their emotional content and the physical changes they cause. Nadal, a wordcutter, makes an encounter that is to change his life forever…
 

Girls

Sumertime. Charlotte works for the South highway toll and trains for the amateur football match which her sister Nath organises.
 

More: 
ifcinema.institutfrancais.com

Photo courtesy of the organisers