AN ACADEMY Award-winning director will walk the red carpet at Cork’s premier French cultural event.
The announcement comes as An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin launched the 37th Cork French Film Festival, which runs at the Arc Cinema in Cork City over five days between March 2nd and 8th.
Oscar-winning director Régis Wargnier features at the festival with a red-carpet screening of his latest release Redress.
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Wargnier’ film Indochine won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1993.
The director will further engage with Cork audiences through a Q&A session and a film-making masterclass.
15 films will be showing during the event, including Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie’s remarkable performance in her first French-speaking role in Alice Winocour’s Couture; the gripping science-fiction feature Dog 51, set in a dystopian, AI-monitored Paris; and several films based on famous French literary classics including adaptations of Albert Camus’ The Stranger, and Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in Eric Besnard’s atmospheric Jean Valjean.
This year’s classic film pays tribute to the late Brigitte Bardot in Academy Award-nominated legal drama, The Truth.
The festival is supported by the Embassy of France in Ireland. H.E. Céline Place, Ambassador of France to Ireland highlighted the 40-year success of the film festival, ‘From classics and new releases to educational screenings and short films, the festival’s outstanding line-up reflects the creativity and vitality of our film industry’
She added that the festival ‘truly embodies the longstanding connection between France and Cork as 2026 is a milestone year with Cork officially twinned with France during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU.’
An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin with Ambassador of France to Ireland H.E Céline Place and President of Alliance Française and Director of the Cork French Film Festival, Valérie David-McGonnell at the launch of Cork French Film Festival 2026 in The Metropole Hotel.Launching the festival, An Taoiseach Michéal Martin said the festival serves as a ‘cultural bridge’ between France and Ireland that showcases ‘the richness and diversity of French-language cinema and storytelling.’
The full line-up of events can be found at corkfrenchfilmfestival.com
