In what has become a spring tradition, the Northern Kentucky University Cinema Studies Program along with the departments of English and World Languages and Literatures are bringing Albertine Cinémathèque of French Films to campus.
The Albertine Cinémathèque is a program funded by the government of France through the Villa Albertine and the Albertine Foundation that provides grant money for colleges and universities to host film festivals showcasing five recent critically acclaimed French films as well as a classic from the great history of French cinema. According to festival organizer Dr. John Alberti, “We have chosen six films that represent the diversity of modern French film, in terms of style, genre, and cultural focus. We invite all film lovers to our campus to celebrate the continuing vitality and excitement of one of the world’s great movie cultures.”
The movies will screen on consecutive Thursdays from March 19 through April 23 at 6 p.m. in the Otto Budig Theatre in the Northern Kentucky University Center. Admission and parking are free.
The festival includes:
March 19: Holy Cow
The debut feature from the exciting young director Louise Courvoisier, tells a classic coming-of- age story set within a rural community in the Jura region from which she hails. Winner of the Best First Film Cesar award, this uplifting movie provides our viewers with a detailed view of French rural life.
March 26: Dahomey
With her documentary Dahomey, the Golden Bear winner at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, acclaimed director Mati Diop explores the persistent issue of Europe’s colonial past through the story of the Republic of Benin’s efforts to retrieve 26 art works looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century by French troops, showing how the past lives on in the present and challenging viewers to think about our own connection and responsibility to these past events.
April 2: Flow
An international sensation and winner of the 2025 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the joint Latvian/Belgian/French production Flow is the latest from the brilliant Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis. Both a tribute to silent film and an example of the artistic possibilities of widely available computer animation software, Flow represents a kind of climate change parable centered on the adventure of a group of various animals led by a domestic cat to escape flood waters that seem to be engulfing the world.
April 9: Ghost Trail
Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail uses the espionage thriller to tell a story, loosely based on actual events, of a group of Syrian refugees in France searching to uncover members of the Assad regime responsible for the torture of political prisoners. A kind of counterpart to Diop’s Dahomey, Ghost Trail is based in the ongoing political phantoms of colonialism as represented in contemporary Middle East conflict.
April 16: When Fall is Coming
When Fall is Coming, the latest from François Ozon, combines domestic melodrama and mystery in a sophisticated mix of moods and attitudes that have long been a hallmark of French cinema.
April 23: A Woman is a Woman
For our classic selection we are turning to what may be the cinematic legend Jean-Luc Godard’s most buoyant, bright, and delightful movie, 196l’s A Woman is a Woman. Both romantic comedy and musical, A Woman is a Woman is a sly tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood moviemaking.
Each screening will be followed by a discussion led by an NKU faculty member.
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