Europa Europa 2026 celebrates the breadth of European cinema, bringing together stories, voices and visions from across the continent. In this article, the spotlight narrows to the festival’s French-linked selections: French-language films, a major French retrospective and a range of multilingual coproductions involving France. Together, they traverse animated portraits of artistic legends, coming-of-age tales shaped by climate anxiety and technology, biographical dramas, absurdist comedy, cross-border stories of migration and belonging, and documentary accounts of war and its human cost.
FRENCH LANGUAGE FILMS AT EUROPA EUROPA 2026
Director: Sylvain Chomet
Countries: France, Belgium, Luxembourg
Language: French
An animated portrait of Marcel Pagnol, one of the most influential figures in 20th century French literature and cinema. Premiering at Cannes Film Festival 2025, it blends memoir, imagination and archival references to trace Pagnol’s career as a playwright, novelist and filmmaker, from early theatrical success to later screen legacy.
Director: Ugo Bienvenu
Country: France
Language: French
French illustrator and graphic novelist Ugo Bienvenu’s feature debut, which was produced by Natalie Portman, follows a young boy from the future who becomes stranded in 2075 and forms an unexpected friendship with a local girl, while trying to find his way home. A hand-drawn animated science-fiction story combining themes of coming of age, climate anxiety, technology and environmental collapse.
This film is nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards 2026
Director: Fabienne Godet
Country: France
Language: French
Starring breakout French cinema star Salif Cissé (All Hands on Deck) opposite veteran Denis Podalydès (Sorry Angel, Deception), it centres on a struggling young artist hired as a voice impersonator for a celebrated writer, triggering misunderstandings that evolve into an unlikely friendship. It examines how technology mediates intimacy, authorship and dependence on others.
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Country: France
Language: French
An absurdist comedy set in motion by a freak piano accident that disrupts everyday life and spirals into increasingly irrational consequences. A man becomes fixated on recreating a traumatic piano accident that brought him sudden attention, fame and a sense of purpose. As his attempts escalate, the film traces how pain, spectacle and self-destruction become entangled with identity and public recognition.
Director: Diane Kurys
Country: France
Language: French
Starring Roschdy Zem and Marina Foïs, this is a biographical drama tracing the relationship between French cinema icons Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, spanning from their meeting in 1949 to Signoret’s death in 1985. It explores the intersection of private life, political conviction and public image within post-war France, including Montand’s internationally publicised affair with Marilyn Monroe during Let’s Make Love.
A FRENCH RETROSPECTIVE
Tales of the seasons (1990-1998)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Country: France
Language: French
A retrospective of four late-career works by one of the defining figures of the French New Wave presented together as a complete cycle: A Tale of Springtime (1990), A Tale of Winter (1991), A Tale of Summer (1996) and A Tale of Autumn (1998), collectively known as Rohmer’s Tales of the Seasons.
Each film centres on a female protagonist, examining love, chance and moral choice through the shifting rhythms of the seasons These films represent Rohmer’s most widely celebrated late-period achievement, made when the director was in his seventies, and frequently cited as a masterclass in restrained, dialogue-driven cinema.
AN ITALO-FRENCH RETROSPECTIVE WITH FAMOUS FRENCH ACTORS
There is also a retrospective to Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni at Europa Europa 2026. Three of his Italo-French productions will be screened: L’Avventura (1960) starring French actress Dominique Blanchar, L’Eclisse (1962) starring French actor Alain Delon, and La Notte (1961) starring French actress Jeanne Moreau. These are collectively referred to as Michelangelo Antonioni’s “trilogy on modernity and its discontents”.
MULTILINGUAL FRENCH COPRDUCTIONS AT EUROPA EUROPA 2026
Director: Maryam Tozxzani
Countries: Morocco, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany
Languages: Spanish, Arabic, French
Working across give European and North African countries, the film follows lives shaped by movement across borders, set around Calle Málaga, a street that becomes a meeting point for personal histories shaped by migration, displacement and belonging.
Director: Michal Kwieciński
Country: Poland
Languages: French, Polish
Michał Kwieciński (Warsaw 44) returns with a large-scale biopic of one of Europe’s most influential composers, Chopin. Set in 19th century Paris, it traces Chopin’s early exile from Poland and his rise as a defining musical voice of a generation.
Director: Lav Diaz
Countries: Portugal, Spain, France, Philippines, Taiwan
Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, French
Premiering at Cannes Film Festival 2025, it presents a non-traditional historical biopic tracing Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s expeditions across Southeast Asia, foregrounding the experiences of Indigenous communities and colonised subjects.
Director: Damiano Michieletto
Countries: Italy, France
Languages: Italian, French
Award-winning theatre and opera director Damiano Michieletto’s feature debut is set in early 18th century Venice and explores music, discipline and desire within the female orchestras of the Ospedale della Pietà where composer Vivaldi taught for decades.
NON-FRENCH LANGUAGE FRENCH COPRODUCTIONS
Director: Albert Serra
Countries: Spain, France, Portugal
Language: Spanish
The film portrays contemporary bullfighting, centred on one of the sport’s most prominent figures, Spanish matador Andrés Roca Rey, documenting his preparation, performances and private moments surrounding bullfights across Spain. It is filmed from inside the arena in director Albert Serra’s first application of his long-take immersive approach to non-fiction shifting from historical figures to living subjects.
Director: László Nemes
Countries: Hungary, United Kingdom, France, USA
Language: Hungarian
Premiering at Venice Film Festival, this film is set in post-1856 Hungary and follows a teenaged boy whose search for his missing father is disputed by the arrival of violent paternal figure. It examines intergenerational trauma, toxic masculinity and patriarchal power structures against the backdrop of Hungary’s failed uprising against the Soviet Union.
Director: Olmo Omerzu
Countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, France
Language: Czech
Continuing the director’s interest in adolescence and early adulthood, this film follows a group of characters whose lives intersect through acts of loyalty, betrayal and obligation, examining how small decisions carry lasting consequences.
Director: Manuel Gómez Pereira
Countries: Spain, France
Language: Spanish
Two weeks after the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, Lieutenant Medina bursts into Madrid’s grand Hotel Palace with an order from General Franco. There is to be a celebratory banquet dinner held there that very night, hosted by Franco for his prestigious guests. But the hotel had been converted to a hospital during the war, and all the hotel’s chefs are in jail for being leftists. The young lieutenant, the meticulous head waiter and a group of prisoners (pardoned from jail for the occasion), must work together to deliver a sumptuous banquet in record time. All seems to be going smoothly…until the chefs use the opportunity to plan their escape.
Director: Olivier Sarbil
Countries: Denmark, Ukraine, France, USA
Language: Ukranian
A frontline portrait of a young Ukrainian soldier, filmed over time as the war reshapes his body, identity and future. The documentary follows Viktor, a Ukrainian serviceman who loses his hearing during combat, documenting his recovery, return to civilian life and ongoing relationship to the war.
KEY INFO FOR EUROPA EUROPA 2026
WHAT: Europa Europa 2026
WHERE & WHEN:
Check out our full 2026 dates and venues below.
BRISBANE
Angelika Cinemas, Woolloongabba
Thu 19 Feb – Sun 1 Mar
HOBART
State Cinema, Hobart
Thu 19 Feb – Sun 1 Mar
MELBOURNE
Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick
Thu 19 Feb – Thu 19 Mar
Lido Cinemas, Hawthorn
Thu 19 Feb – Thu 19 Mar
Cameo Cinemas, Belgrave
Fri 20 Feb – Mon 2 Mar
SYDNEY
Ritz Cinemas, Randwick
Thu 19 Feb – Thu 19 Mar
HOW: Purchase your tickets for individual films via the above links. If you’re planning on seeing several films, you may like to purchase a Festival Pass – only in Melbourne or Sydney – you can choose from a 5, 10 or all films pass.
HOW MUCH: Ticket prices vary in each city.
Don’t forget that the Antenna Documentary Film Festival 2026 and Mardi Gras Film Festival are also coming to Sydney, that Perth has the Perth Festival 2026 Lotterywest Films, and that the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2026 is also coming to all capital cities soon.
