The Kansas City
French Film Festival

Awards and selections: Festival de Cannes 2025, Cesar Nominations, Taff 2025 – Audience Award, Best film Seville European Film Festival, Award Aegean Film Festival, Munich Film Festival
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Cast

Suzanne Lindon (Adèle), Abraham Wapler (Seb), Vincent Macaigne (Guy), Julia Piaton (Céline), Zinedine Soualem (Abdel), Paul Kircher (Anatole), Vassili Schneider (Lucien), Sara Giraudeau (Odette), Cécile de France (Calixte), François Berléand (Victor Hugo), Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu (Sarah Bernhardt), Olivier Gourmet (Claude Monet), Raïka Hazanavicius (Rose)

Synopsis

A group of strangers, all descendants of Adèle Meunier, converge in Normandy, drawn together by the fate of her long-abandoned property. As the town expresses interest in purchasing it, four “cousins” are tasked with overseeing the transaction—but what begins as a simple real estate matter quickly unfolds into a journey through time and memory, revealing the extraordinary life of the woman who binds them all.

From the quiet streets of Normandy to 1895 Paris, “The Colors of Time” (La Venue de l’Avenir) immerses us in the City of Light at the height of its creative and industrial awakening. Here, Adèle’s story intertwines with the sparks of Impressionist painting, innovative music, and the dawn of electricity and photography, creating a luminous portrait of a woman whose vision and spirit resonate across generations.

Colors of Time is Cédric Klapisch’s enchanting new comedy—a soul-stirring, time-traveling journey that celebrates art, memory, and the quiet power of a woman whose life continues to connect and inspire her descendants.

Director’s Biography

Writer and director Cédric Klapisch made his first short, In Transit, as a graduate student at NYU in 1986. His second short, Ce qui me meut, earned a César nomination and Best Short Film from French Cinema Critics, and his first feature, Little Nothings (1992), was also César-nominated. He has since directed fifteen features, including Family Resemblances (1996), the Spanish Apartment (2002)/ Russian Dolls (2005) trilogy, and its Amazon series sequel, Greek Salad (2023). His recent works include Back to Burgundy (2017) Someone, Somewhere (2019) and Rise (2022). He was showrunner on the first season of Call My Agent! and directed a modernized Magic Flute in 2023.

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Stay with us after the movie for a special discussion led by Dr. Cristina Albu.

Topic: Color Perception in Painting and Cinema

Dr. Albu joined University of Missouri–Kansas City in 2012 after earning her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research explores how contemporary art challenges the ways we see and interpret the world. At UMKC, she regularly teaches courses such as The Artist in Society and Art Museums: History and Practice.

Join us for this engaging conversation and discover how color shapes the way we experience both painting and cinema. 🎨🎬

Astrid Thompson finally succeeds in fulfilling her father's dream: to bring together four Stradivarius for a unique concert, eagerly expected by music lovers around the world. But Lise, George, Peter and Apolline, the four virtuosos recruited for the occasion, are incapable of playing together. The rehearsals are one ego crisis after another. With no solution in sight, Astrid decides to go and find the only person who, in her eyes, can still save the event: Charlie Beaumont, the composer of the score.

Cast

Valérie Donzelli: Astrid Carlson ; Frédéric Pierrot: Charlie Beaumont ; Mathieu Spinosi: George Massaro ; Emma Ravier : Apolline Dessartre ; Daniel Garlitsky : Peter Nicolescu ; Marie Vialle : Lise Carvalho

Director’s Biography

Grégory Magne grew up in Burgundy. In 2007, he set off to cross the Atlantic solo from La Rochelle to Salvador de Bahia, on a 6.5-metre sailing boat with no means of communication. He took a camera on board to tell the story of his daily life, from which he made his first film, Vingt-quatre heures par jour de mer (Twenty-four hours a day at sea). Since then, he has sailed between documentaries and fiction, between scriptwriting and directing. In 2012, with Stéphane Viard, he wrote and directed his first feature film, L'Air de Rien, a gritty comedy starring Michel Delpech. In 2018, he reunited with the actor for his second feature film, Perfumes. For The Musicians, the director uses real musicians who, along with Valérie Donzelli and Frédéric Pierrot, play the members of a string quartet whose egos struggle to find harmony.

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Stay with us after the movie for a special discussion led by Dr. Stuart Duncan.

Topic: Stradivarius and the Ideal Instrument

Dr. Duncan received his Ph.D. in Musicology from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2022. Since then, he has been on the faculty at the UMKC Conservatory, where he teaches courses on chamber music and music history. His research explores the relationship between music, nationalism, politics, and power throughout the twentieth century. 🎻

Paris, May ‘68: A 9-year-old boy is thrilled to stay a few extra days with his grandparents in their perennial apartment, joined by his two lively uncles— a visual artist and an aspiring intellectual—and his colourful great grandmother from Odessa, while his parents join the historical protests. As the country is turned upside down, the family is forced to confront the past when an illustrious guest seeks shelter in their venerated hideout. The last movie of Michel Blanc.
A buoyant comedy exploring the free-spirited dynamics of a family during the famous student protests that swept through France in May ‘68. An eccentric family portrait, adapted from a novel written by one of its members, Christophe Boltanski, nephew of the renowned visual artist Christian Boltanski.

The Safe House is a 2025 comedy-drama film written by Lionel Baier and Catherine Charrier, directed by Baier and starring Michel Blanc and Dominique Reymond. The movie is adapted from La Cache by Christophe Boltanski.

The international co-production between Switzerland, Luxembourg and France was selected in the Competition at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear and had first screening on 20 February 2025 at Berlinale Palast.

Cast

• Dominique Reymond as Grandmother
• Michel Blanc as Père-Grand, Grandfather
• William Lebghil as Great Uncle
• Aurélien Gabrielli as Little Uncle
• Liliane Rovère as Hinterland, the great grand mother

Director’s Biography

Lionel Baier is a Swiss filmmaker who studied art at the University of Lausanne and in 2009 co-founded the production company Bande à Part Films with Ursula Meier, Jean-Stéphane Bron, and Frédéric Mermoud. Several of his films—such as Comme des voleurs, Longwave (Les grandes ondes (à l'ouest)), and Vanity (La vanité)—have been nominated for the Swiss Film Award, and his work has screened at major festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival.

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Stay with us after the movie for a special discussion led by Dr. Drew Bergerson.

Topic: Shadows of the Shoah in Post-War France

Dr. Bergerson is a Professor of History at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. His research and teaching focus on modern Germany, with a particular interest in the history of everyday life and ethnographic history. Join us for this thoughtful conversation exploring the historical memory of the Holocaust and its echoes in post-war France.

Leave One Day is a 2025 French musical comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Amélie Bonnin in her feature directorial debut. It was based on her 2021 short film Partir un jour, which won the César Award for Best Fiction Short Film at the 48th ceremony. The film had its world premiere as the Opening Film of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 13 May 2025 and was released theatrically in France on the same day.
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Cast

It stars Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, François Rollin, Tewfik Jallab, Dominique Blanc, Mhamed Arezki, Pierre-Antoine Billon, and Amandine Dewasmes.

Director’s Biography

Amélie Bonnin is a French director, screenwriter, and art director born in 1985 in Châteauroux. In 2023, she received a César for Best Short Film for Partir un jour. In 2025, she adapted the short into a feature film, also called Partir un jour which was selected to open the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

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Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine. However, his daily life is soon about to be disrupted by his neighbor, Raymond Sintès, who draws Meursault into his shady dealings ' until one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach...​

Cast

• Benjamin Voisin as Meursault
• Rebecca Marder as Marie Cardona
• Pierre Lottin as Raymond Sintès
• Denis Lavant as Salamano
• Swann Arlaud as the Priest

Synopsis

The Stranger is a film adaptation of the 1942 novella by Albert Camus, a landmark work of existentialist literature that follows Meursault, a detached Frenchman in colonial Algeria who, weeks after his mother’s funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man on a beach. The trial that follows becomes less about the crime itself than about Meursault’s character and indifference. Directed by François Ozon and starring Benjamin Voisin, the film was shot in Morocco in 2025 and premiered in competition for the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.

Director’s Biography

François Ozon (born November 15, 1967, in Paris) is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer known for working across many genres and often writing and producing his own films, with a prolific career frequently compared to that of Woody Allen. Although often nominated for César Awards, he has not won one, but he received the Lumière Award for Best Director for 8 Women (2003) and the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for In the House (2012).

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Stay with us after the movie for a special discussion led by Dr. Nacer Khelouz.

Topic: Camus and Algeria

Dr. Khelouz has taught at the University of Missouri–Kansas City since 2007. He specializes in Francophone literature and cinema, with research and teaching spanning French literature from the 18th to the 21st centuries, colonial and post-colonial studies, literature and film, and contemporary French culture. His work also explores major societal questions such as multiculturalism, national identity, and the concept of French laïcité.

The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography at the 77th Academy Awards (2005).
César Award for Best Supporting Actress : Marion Cotillard
César Award for Most Promising Actor : Gaspard Ulliel
César Award for Best Cinematography : Bruno Delbonnel
César Award for Best Production Design : Aline Bonetto

Cast

Audrey Tatou (Amélie Poulain) and yes Jodie Foster !

• Audrey Tautou as Mathilde Donnay
• Gaspard Ulliel as Manech Langonnet, Mathilde's fiancé
• Dominique Pinon as Sylvain, Mathilde's uncle
• Chantal Neuwirth as Bénédicte, Mathilde's aunt
• Clovis Cornillac as Benoît Notre-Dame
• Marion Cotillard as Tina Lombardi
• Julie Depardieu as Véronique Passavant
• Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Major François Lavrouye
• André Dussollier as Pierre-Marie Rouvières
• Ticky Holgado as Germain Pire
• Tchéky Karyo as Captain Etienne Favourier
• Jodie Foster as Élodie Gordes
• Rufus as The Breton

Synopsis

It's 1919 and Mathilde is 19 years old. Two years earlier, her fiance Manech left for the Somme where, like thousands of others, he "died on the field of honor." The official notification of his death clearly states this, black ink on white paper. And yet, Mathilde refuses to accept this evidence. If Manech was dead, she would know. She clings on to her intuition as though to a last stretched cord linking her to her lover. A former sergent may insist that Manech died in the no man's land of a trench called Bingo Crépuscule, accompanied by four other soldiers condemned to death for willful mutilation, the message doesn't get through. Mathilde refuses to let go, clings ever more tightly to her convictions and sets out on her own investigation. Despite false hopes and incertitudes, little be little she reveals the truth about what happened to Manech and his four camarades. The path is full of stumbling blocks and traps, but Mathilde is not afraid. Anything can be overcome by those who choose to challenge fate...

Director’s Biography

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (born 1953) is a French director and screenwriter known for his visually imaginative and whimsical films. He first gained attention with Delicatessen (1991) and The City of Lost Children (1995), co-directed with Marc Caro, later directed the Hollywood film Alien Resurrection (1997), and achieved worldwide acclaim with Amélie (2001), which earned international success and Academy Award nominations.

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Stay with us after the movie for a special discussion led by Dr. Allie Mickle.

Dr. Mickle teaches film and media studies in the University of Missouri–Kansas City Department of Media, Art and Design. With a background in art history, her research and teaching explore the intersections between art and film, examining how these fields expand our understanding of film production, exhibition, and media forms. 🎬🎨

Rome Film Festival 2025

Cast

• Younès Boucif : Mehdi
• Clara Bretheau : Léa
• Hiam Abbass : Souhila
• Gustave Kervern : Bernard
• Birane Ba : Ibrahim
• Malika Zerrouki : Fatima
• Laurent Stocker (Académie Française): Christophe
• Agathe Dronne : Sylvie

Synopsis

Mehdi's life lies on a fragile balance. He plays the role of the perfect Algerian son for his mother Fatima, while hiding his relationship with Léa and his passion for French cuisine and wine, which he pursues as a chef at the bistro where he works. But Léa can no longer tolerate his family secrets and demands to meet Fatima. Cornered, Mehdi comes up with the worst possible solution...
The film follows Mehdi, a second-generation immigrant who lives between two worlds: his Algerian family and his life as a successful chef in a traditional French bistro. Everything seems stable—he dreams of running the restaurant with his French girlfriend Léa and spends his evenings with friends at the local bar.

Until now, Mehdi has carefully kept his French life—represented by his restaurant and relationship—separate from his Algerian identity, embodied by his family and community. This balance is disrupted when Léa insists on meeting his mother, Fatima, causing the boundaries between Mehdi’s two identities to collapse and leading to emotional and cultural tensions.

In principle, Spices and Lies (La Petite Cuisine de Mehdi) offers the elements for a thoughtful exploration of identity, belonging, and postcolonial tensions in contemporary France, highlighting a society that celebrates culinary culture while remaining uneasy about the descendants of its former colonies.

Director’s Biography

The screenplay is loosely inspired by the director’s personal life, as he had hidden the existence of his girlfriend from his mother out of fear of her reaction.

The filming took place in Lyon.

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