Bonus festival brings award-winning films to Cork
Cillian Ferry
What’s better than a film festival? Well it’s a surprise extra film festival of course!
Cork audiences this week have the chance to experience more of the best of contemporary French cinema as a special edition of the Cork French Film Festival continues at The Arc Cinema.
Cork viewers will have access to a curated programme of contemporary French cinema, with all public screenings presented in French with English subtitles.
The festival’s 37th annual edition took place in March, and reinforces Cork’s cultural connection with France.
Alliance Française de Cork added this bonus special edition of the Cork French Film Festival to celebrate the Cork–France pairing during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The public programme features three Irish or Cork premieres at The Arc Cinema in Cork.
On Friday 16 October at 7pm, the festival presents the Cork premiere of Carine Tardieu’s ‘The Ties that Bind Us’ (L’Attachement). Set in Rennes, Cork’s French twin city, the drama explores modern family life and received three César Award 2026 nominations: Best Film, Best Adaptation and Best Supporting Actress.
On Saturday 17 October at 7pm, audiences can see the Irish premiere of Alice Vial’s ‘You Found Me’ (L’Âme idéale). This Normandy-set comedy-drama follows Elsa, a woman whose unusual ability to see the dead isolates her, until she meets Oscar. The film was nominated for Best Film at the Warsaw International Film Festival.
The programme concludes on Sunday 18 October at 7pm with the Irish premiere of Pierre Salvadori’s ‘The Electric Kiss’ (La Vénus électrique). Set in Paris in 1928, the comedy-drama opened the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and won Best Film and Best Actor at the Cabourg Film Festival.
A schools screening of ‘Ride Above’ (Tempête), adapted from Christophe Donner’s novel ‘Tempête au haras’, is also taking place today, Thursday 15 October in Cork, Mallow and Midleton. Set in Normandy, the film follows Zoé, a young woman determined to pursue her dream of becoming a jockey after a life-changing accident.
The festival is directed by Valérie David-McGonnell, President of Alliance Française de Cork, Cork’s French-language and cultural centre, which will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2027. The special October edition is organised with the support of Cork City Council, the Embassy of France in Ireland, AIPLF and Institut Français.
It reflects the aims of the France–Ireland Joint Strategic Framework 2026–2030, signed in Paris in January 2026 by Irish Minister Helen McEntee TD and French Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, which identifies the Alliances Françaises in Ireland as “key players in promoting cultural exchange and Franco-Irish relations”.