Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center present the 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual festival that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking, taking place March 3–13.

Tickets are now on sale!

The 2022 Opening Night selection is Claire Denis’s Fire, featuring screen legend Juliette Binoche as Sara, navigating the reemergence of her ex-lover François (Grégoire Colin), who coincidentally contacts her partner Jean (Vincent Lindon) for a business proposition. The melancholic drama showcases Denis’s characteristic knack for capturing the intimate sensuality of everyday life, bolstered by a gorgeous score from regular collaborators Tindersticks.

Highlights of the 23-film lineup include Authentik, Audrey Estrougo’s crowd-pleasing and galvanizing biopic of rap duo Suprême NTM, offering a dynamic reconstruction of a moment in hip-hop’s global explosion; Emmanuel Carrère’s Between Two Worlds, taking inspiration from investigative journalist Florence Aubenas’s 2010 best-selling nonfiction book The Night Cleaner and a longtime passion project for star Juliette Binoche; Deception, master filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation of Philip Roth’s classic novel encompassing a fusion of rigorous intellectual discourse and fervid emotionality; Rendez-Vous regular Christophe Honoré’s Guermantes, cunningly shot and wonderfully imagined by Honoré’s theatrical community despite the production’s debilitating COVID delays; Hold Me Tight, Mathieu’s Amalric’s daringly fluid portrait of one woman’s fractured psyche; Antoine Barraud’s third narrative feature Madeleine Collins, equal parts drama and thriller, starring Virginie Efira (Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta); Our Men, starring director and Rendez-Vous regular Louis Garrel and directed by Rachel Lang, drawing upon her own background as an officer in the French army reserves; Paris, 13th District, Palme d’Or–winner Jacques Audiard’s exploration of casual sex, webcams, and relationships in an unsparing but nonjudgmental portrait of young Parisians; and much more.

This year’s lineup also features a number of highly anticipated debut features, including Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love, which premiered in the Critics’ Week section at last year’s Cannes; Vincent Le Port’s Bruno Reidal, Confessions of a Murderer, a cold and unnervingly charged portrait of a sexually driven killer; Emilie Carpentier’s The Horizon, following disaffected teenagers discovering a sense of purpose in political engagement; Magnetic Beats; Vincent Maël Cardona’s heady, emotionally rich reconstruction of an intense moment of social and cultural change and a Directors’ Fortnight selection at last year’s Cannes; and Constance Meyer’s Robust, featuring Gérard Depardieu and a premise reminiscent of the unlikely friendship in 2012’s Rendez-Vous selection The Intouchables, but with a drier sense of humor that’s all its own.

Confirmed to appear in person at the festival are: Mathieu Amalric, Jacques Audiard, Antoine Barraud, Philippe Béziat, Juliette Binoche, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Leyla Bouzid, Vincent Maël Cardona, Emilie Carpentier, Emmanuel Carrère, Claire Denis, Arnaud Desplechin, Eric Dumont, Déborah Lukumuena, Aurélia Georges, Axelle Ropert, with more to follow.

Free talks include a sit-down with filmmakers Claire Denis and official Guest of Honor at this year’s Rendez-Vous Jim Jarmusch, in an extended conversation about their decades-spanning careers; Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena, meeting to discuss their professional trajectories and creative influences; and “Working the image : a French-American look at cinematography,” a special panel organized in partnership with French In Motion and the Gotham Film & Media Institute and bringing together French and American filmmakers and cinematographers to discuss their varied inspirations, creative philosophies, and artistic practices.

Moviegoers will have the opportunity to recognize their favorite film in the lineup with the third annual Rendez-Vous Audience Award. This year’s festival will also feature the inaugural Best Emerging Filmmaker Award, a new initiative 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 students pursuing film and French studies degrees from NYC colleges will be invited to participate in the jury and to choose their favorite first or second feature from this year’s Rendez-Vous slate. Each jury member will receive a free all-access pass to view every screening in the festival. The jury-awarded film will be announced shortly after the end of the festival alongside the Rendez-Vous Audience Award.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Maddie Whittle, in collaboration with Unifrance.