Festival: More guests confirmed for IFI French Film Festival, Nov 18th-29th 

More fantastic guests have been confirmed for the IFI French Film Festival, November 18th to 29th. In addition to this year’s Guest of Honour, Jacques Audiard, the Festival will welcome Thomas Bidegain, who has collaborated with Audiard on several scripts, including A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan, and who presents his directorial debut, The Cowboys; Noé Debré, who apprenticed Bidegain and worked on Dheepan and The Cowboys; and actress Louise Bourgoin who has worked with acclaimed directors like Luc Besson, Nicole Garcia, Anne Fontaine, and Guillaume Nicloux, and is the star of two new films: The White Knights and I Am a Soldier screening at the Festival.

Award-winning filmmaker Jacques Audiard will make a special trip to the Festival this year to take part in a Q&A following the Irish premiere of his Palme-d’Or-winning Dheepan, a masterclass during which he will share his vast experience of filmmaking and in a post-screening Q&A after his Oscar-nominated 2009 film, A Prophet. Audiard is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning director and screenwriter. Born in 1952, the son of Michel Audiard, a popular screenwriter and director, he started out as an assistant editor and developed his craft on films such as The Tenant (1976) directed by Roman Polanski. In the 1980s he worked with directors such as Claude Miller and Michel Blanc, writing screenplays for films including Deadly Circuit (1983), Frequent Death (1988), and the comedy Dead Tired (1994). In 1994, he directed his first feature, See How They Fall, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Mathieu Kassovitz. This was followed with A Self Made Hero (1996), based on the novel by Jean-François Deniau and featuring an unforgettable Kassovitz in the title role; Read My Lips (2001) with Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel; The Beat that My Heart Skipped (2005, a remake of James Toback’s Fingers); the Oscar-nominated A Prophet (2009); and the romantic drama Rust and Bone (2012). He won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year with Dheepan which will be screening as part of the Festival on November 20th.

Thomas Bidegain is a director and screenwriter who has collaborated with Jacques Audiard on several scripts including A Prophet (2009), for which he, together with Audiard, won the César for Best Original Screenplay; Rust and Bone (2012) for which they won the César for Best Adaptation; and Dheepan, winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Bidegain will attend the Festival to present the screening of his directorial debut, The Cowboys which premiered at Cannes 2015 as part of the Directors’ Fortnight selection.

After studying Classics at the Sorbonne, Noé Debré apprenticed with screenwriter Thomas Bidegain. Since then he has written and collaborated on several feature film screenplays including Anthony Marciano’s Les Gamins (2013); Smart Ass (2014) by Kim Chapiron; Fred Grivois’s thriller Through the Air (2014); Cannes 2015 Palme d’Or winner Dheepan by Jacques Audiard; and the debut feature by Thomas Bidegain, The Cowboys, due for release in France in November 2015. Noé Debré continues his work as a writer while exploring new directions in theatre and television. He will join Audiard for a discussion after Dheepan and will accompany Bidegain to discuss The Cowboys.

Actress Louise Bourgoin was born in Rennes, where she graduated in Fine Art in 2004 and prepared to embark on a career as a graphic artist. In 2007, while working as a presenter in a comedy show on the French TV channel Canal Plus, she was spotted by the director Anne Fontaine who cast her in the film The Girl from Monaco with Fabrice Luchini, released in 2008. Since then, Louise Bourgoin has been focusing exclusively on cinema, working with acclaimed directors like Luc Besson, Nicole Garcia, Anne Fontaine, Guillaume Nicloux, Joachim Lafosse or Lucas Belvaux. She stars in two films during this year’s Festival, The White Knights by Joachim Lafosse and I Am a Soldier, a first feature by director Laurent Larivière which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year. Bourgoin will talk about her experiences working on The White Knghts on November 27th, and I Am a Soldier at the Festival.

GUESTS SCHEDULE:
Friday, November 20th (18.15) – Dheepan + Q&A with Jacques Audiard and Noé Debré
Saturday, November 21st (12.00) – Masterclass: Jacques Audiard in Conversation
Saturday, November 21st (18.00) – The Cowboys + Q&A with Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré
Sunday, November 22nd (13.00) – A Prophet + Q&A with Jacques Audiard
Friday, November 27th (18.10) – The White Knights + Q&A with Louise Bourgoin
Saturday, November 28th (17.20) – I Am a Soldier + Q&A with Louise Bourgoin

Bigger and better than ever, the IFI French Film Festival returns for its 16th edition from November 18th to 29th with a massive 35 screenings (including 16 Irish premieres), a national tour of key titles across Ireland and a stellar line-up of guests that include Palme d’Or winner and acclaimed director of Rust and Bone, A Prophet and The Beat that My Heart Skipped, Jacques Audiard.

Audiences can expect a superb programme of brand new French cinema at the IFI French Film Festival over 12 exciting days, including work from Emmanuelle Bercot, Arnaud Desplechin, Philippe Garrel, Guillaume Nicloux, Jérôme Bonnell and, Festival Guest of Honour, Jacques Audiard. There will be a focus on the 1970s with three remarkable films, and a retrospective on one of France’s most respected directors, Audiard, including a masterclass with the man himself. Other guests include director and screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, writer Noé Debré and actress Louise Bourgoin. Those living outside of Dublin can experience the drama and thrill of the Festival also as a selection of films will tour nationally in collaboration with access>CINEMA.

Tickets are available to buy at www.ifi.ie/frenchfest or at the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477.