Today, Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center announced the winners of the 30th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, with Winter in Sokcho by Koya Kamura receiving the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award and The Marching Band by Emmanuel Courcol winning the Audience Award. Additionally, Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail received the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 30th Anniversary Award.

Ticket sales for the 30th edition of the festival grew again this year with highly attended screenings throughout the series, and more than 8,500 tickets issued, including 467 students attending education screenings and more than 150 people attending free talks. Of the 23 feature films in this year’s lineup, more than half are directed by women, four were feature debuts of upcoming directors, and eight directors had films in past installments of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Winter in Sokcho

Best Emerging Filmmaker Award winner Winter in Sokcho is Koya Kamura’s feature directorial debut starring Bella Kim as Son-Ha, a  woman who has never met her long-absent French father and forms a tentative bond with artist Yan Kerrand (Roschdy Zem) when he arrives to stay in her Korean seaside town. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The Best Emerging Filmmaker Student Jury praised the film’s exploration of French identity, the special spiritual connection between strangers, its warmth and creative use of animated interludes, calling it “an impressive debut.”

The Best Emerging Filmmaker Award is designed to bring attention to the unique cinematic point of view of emerging filmmakers and their interpretation of France’s new and diverse identities, and to encourage young people to attend the festival. Six New York City college students were invited to participate in the Best Emerging Filmmaker Student Jury, and to choose their favorite first or second feature from this year’s Rendez-Vous lineup. The students were chosen by the professors of Rendez-Vous’ partner universities. 

The Marching Band

Audience Award winner The Marching Band by Emmanuel Courcol premiered at Cannes and traces the touching reunion of two brothers, now both musicians after being separated at birth. The film was nominated for seven César Awards, including Best Film. Thibault (Benjamin Lavernhe) is a world-famous orchestra conductor and pianist; Jimmy (Pierre Lottin) is a blue-collar kitchen worker who plays trombone in the local marching band. Separated in their infancy, the two brothers are reunited unexpectedly as adults and after some initial friction, find themselves growing closer when Thibault decides to help nurture Jimmy’s nascent musical talent.

Ghost Trail. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

In honor of the festival’s 30th anniversary, an additional award, the 30th Anniversary Award, was established and given to Jonathan Millet’s harrowing Ghost Trail, in which a former prisoner pursuing Syria’s fugitive leaders is determined to confront his torturer. The award was also selected by the Best Emerging Filmmaker Student Jury, who praised the film’s “precious, rare tension,” its humanity in the treatment of a Syrian refugee’s story, and its “bold” and “experimental” stylistic elements.  

This additional award was created and selected by the in person student jury of students from local New York universities.

UNIFRANCE

Founded in 1949, Unifrance is the organisation responsible for promoting French cinema and TV content worldwide.

Located in Paris, Unifrance employs around 50 staff members, as well as representatives based in the U.S., in China, and in Japan. The organisation currently brings together more than 1,000 French cinema and TV content professionals (producers, talents, agents, sales companies, etc.) working together to promote French films and TV programmes among foreign audiences, industry executives, and media. 

Unifrance receives generous year-round support from the French Republic, CNC, and PROCIREP. Visit unifrance.org for more information and follow @unifrance on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky. 

About Unifrance’s 10 to Watch Program

Selected for the excellence of their work by international journalists Rebecca Leffler (Screen International), Fabien Lemercier (Cineuropa), Elsa Keslassy (Variety), Christine Masson (France Inter), and Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter), the actors and directors that make up the 10 to Watch 2025 selection embody the reinvigoration of French cinema through the freedom and singularity of their artistic choices, their ambition, audacity, and openness to the world.