The Alliance Française French Film Festival (AF FFF) has arrived as its 2025 programme of groundbreaking French cinema sets to dazzle audiences across Australia. Now in its 36th year, the largest celebration of French film outside France will play until the 27th April this year. Festival-goers are invited to embark on a unique cultural journey, featuring captivating stories of passion, compelling biopics that delve into the lives of France’s most iconic artists, and thought-provoking debuts from a bold new generation of French filmmakers.
Assisting in that journey is the festival’s CEO Frédéric Alliod, who spoke with our own Peter Gray as the festival launches, telling of his personal measure of success when it comes to the programme, what drew him to this particular line of work, and how he navigates the path of enticing the younger generation away from their small screens.
Do you find there’s a core value system to your role regarding programming and operations of the festival?
Oh, wow. I have never been asked that. If there’s one skill, it’s that talent has nothing to do with it. It’s about experience, and everybody can do it. I don’t feel like what I’m doing is beyond anybody’s capacity. The one skill I would say you need to have is to be able to take the back seat (and) to understand that you’re not doing your own playlist on Netflix.
I’m not trying to please myself. I’m trying to offer a product to an audience in a foreign country, so I have to understand the audience and the cultural differences we might be playing with. Trying to find some things that are going to interest (audiences) and sometimes playing with cliches are what some people expect from (the festival). But you want to surprise them, to take them somewhere else, and to keep that balance. We want to have conversation drivers and films that are part of a cultural experience. They can’t all be the blockbusters that attract the biggest audience.
When you hear about festivals, each year is always promised as the biggest and best yet, and every year that always seems to be true. For you, is there a measure of success with a film festival? Are you looking at attendance, or something else? Are there performance indicators for you that determine what is a successful film festival?
Definitely the number of admissions. I mean, it’s a big festival. This is the biggest French film festival in the world, outside the borders of France. This year we had 188,000 admissions, which is quite a lot for this festival. That’s what we look at (too). We have more cities, so that’s definitely a KPI for us. We listen to the feedback we might collect to see if people have a good experience. If they mention the festival across their social networks, we look at the press and the media to see if they talk about the festival beyond the screening, and mentioning the festival, do audiences look for themes to discuss?
I want to know (this festival) is a cultural event. It’s really important to introduce strong subjects. Some are historical, some are contemporary. It’s about pushing French content, French culture and the French language. I want people to discuss and get together about what they saw and what their insights are about the themes they experienced.
Is there a genre, for you, that you personally favour?
Well, I love thrillers. We don’t have a lot this year, however. They aren’t usually the ones that perform well with audiences. They prefer the romantic themes, because it seems to click with the image of France, so we have a lot of those. But the idea is to have people come to the festival and, if they have a good experience, to try something that is different, and they might be surprised. In a good way. If I would say there’s one genre that defines French cinema, I would say it’s the comedy drama. French cinema is very grounded in reality, and comedy drama is just like life. Sometimes you laugh. Sometimes you cry. Sometimes it’s both at the same time.
When you are a programmer or curator, one of the most difficult (genres) to screen is comedy. This is where you can see the cultural gap. French humour can be so very specific. Sometimes it can be mocking, or, how you say, below the belt? Some people find this offensive and too much. So they are so challenging to select, and we’re trying to find (films) that can be kind of universal.
Regarding curating of festivals, what was it that drew you to this line of work in the first place?
It actually happened by chance. After graduating, I worked in television as a journalist. After two years I realised it was not my calling, so I applied for a junior position abroad called International Volunteers, and, by chance, I got posted at the French Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. I was in charge of organising that film festival. Supporting international film by bringing French films (to Thailand). I had a blast. I really found my way being a project manager. Working with festivals, watching movies, working with local talent…for me, it was like a revelation. I felt like this was what I wanted to do with my life.
It’s clear that you’re someone who loves film, and I’m the same. I hold the cinematic experience so close to my heart. Do you find there’s a conscious effort on your part to appeal to the younger generation who are so used to streaming and, for a lack of a better phrase, have a shorter attention span? With so much social media, have you had to pivot your marketing to make sure you attract those that aren’t necessarily going to the cinemas?
Yes, we are always thinking of how we can attract a younger audience. We use social media (and) we look at TikTok to see how we could create some specific communication for us to reach this audience. For instance, this year we have a film called Beating Hearts. It’s a kind of modern Romeo & Juliet-inspired (film). It’s very cinematographic. It was actually in Cannes this year. And we saw in France that Generation Z really connected with it. It’s definitely a highlight.
Inclusivity has obviously got to be important too. Do you find that your selection has to now actively look for titles that include strong representations of diversity?
We’re trying to have a bit of everything. One of the issues is that small children have a hard time reading subtitles, so that makes it challenging. But we are working with schools, and we have animated and stop-motion films, one being about the destruction of forests, so it sends a strong message and is very accessible to kids. It’s not in the official line-up because we know it’s more challenging for the audiences we are targeting, but we have that opportunity with schools.
And just before I go, do you think there’d be one title that you would recommend above all else this year? If that’s possible…
I cannot. It’s very difficult for me to recommend one title. I wanted to highlight diversity. It might be French cinema, but there’s different genres and all the films are different from one another. This is what we want to analyze. That diversity. If you’re looking at the program, one of the highlights is our centerpiece (title), and it’s called the centerpiece for a reason. And that’s The Count of Monte Cristo. This is a big French blockbuster. You have to see this on the big screen. It was outside the competition at Cannes. You can’t watch this on a TV. Please watch it on the big screen. Now.
This year’s Alliance Française French Film Festival will run between March 4th and 27th April, 2025 across major Australian cities. For more information on screenings, cinema locations, and city dates, head to the official website here.
