Cover The 54th Hong Kong French Film Festival offers audiences a cinematic journey through France, with 50 must-watch films like ‘Colours of Time’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
The 54th Hong Kong French Film Festival offers audiences a cinematic journey through France, with 50 must-watch films like ‘Colours of Time’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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From Parisian streets to provincial towns, these films from the 54th Hong Kong French Film Festival offer a vivid journey across France’s many moods and landscapes
Each November, Hong Kong gains a touch of Parisian light. From November 19 to December 11, 2025, the 54th Hong Kong French Film Festival invites audiences to travel through France without ever leaving their seats—a passage through its cities, countryside and the stories that shaped them.
This year’s edition carries special weight, as it has been 130 years since the Louis and August Lumière screened a film for the first time ever. For the film festival, there are more than 50 films and 120 screenings that trace the contours of a nation that has long turned cinema into a mirror of its soul. The journey covers Paris, where every street seems charged with longing and rebellion, elegance and ache. From the ateliers of haute couture to the smoky cafés and cramped apartments that birthed revolutions, these films reveal the many lives of the capital.
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Then, like a train pulling out of Gare de Lyon, the programme also drifts beyond the city—into misty villages, sun-baked fields and the quiet interiors of provincial France, where history lingers and stories unfold in silence and grace. Here are some of the films that promise to take you there—each one a different stop on this cinematic journey through France.
‘Couture’ (2025)
Above Angelina Jolie delivers a vulnerable performance in fashion week drama ‘Couture’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
Angelina Jolie delivers a vulnerable performance in fashion week drama ‘Couture’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Step behind the velvet rope into the exclusive world of Paris Fashion Week with unprecedented access to Chanel’s historic atelier. Alice Winocour’s drama follows three women—film director Maxine (Angelina Jolie), model Ada (Anyier Anei) and make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf)—navigating the high-pressure fashion industry. Jolie delivers one of her most vulnerable performances as a woman battling cancer while completing her film project.
‘The Richest Woman in the World’ (2025)
Above ‘The Richest Woman in the World’ is inspired by the Bettencourt affair (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
‘The Richest Woman in the World’ is inspired by the Bettencourt affair (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Enter the secretive, gilded world of Parisian oligarchs in Thierry Klifa’s deliciously sharp drama. Isabelle Huppert commands the screen as Marianne Farrere, a cosmetics heiress whose controlled existence unravels when she befriends charismatic photographer Pierre-Alain (Laurent Lafitte). Inspired by the real-life Bettencourt scandal, this sophisticated thriller exposes the corrosive emptiness of extreme wealth.
‘Children of Paradise’ (1945)
Above ‘Children of Paradise’ remains one of French cinema’s greatest achievements (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
‘Children of Paradise’ remains one of French cinema’s greatest achievements (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Marcel Carné’s three-hour epic, often hailed as the greatest French film ever made, immerses audiences in the magnificent theatrical world of 19th-century Paris. Follow enigmatic courtesan Garance (Arletty) as four men—a mime, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat—become entangled in her web of desire. Filmed during Nazi occupation, this luminous masterpiece stands as cinema’s most defiant act of artistic resistance.
‘Children of the Resistance’ (2026)
Above ‘Children of the Resistance’ follows three children in occupied France (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
‘Children of the Resistance’ follows three children in occupied France (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Join three courageous children in Nazi-occupied rural France as they risk everything to join the underground resistance. This exclusive world premiere from director Christophe Barratier, adapted from the bestselling comic series, transforms French history into a thrilling adventure. Legendary actor Gérard Jugnot will attend the screening—a truly unmissable event for Hong Kong audiences.
‘Colours of Time’ (2025)
Above ‘Colours of Time’ bridges 1895 Belle Époque Paris with modern Normandy (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
‘Colours of Time’ bridges 1895 Belle Époque Paris with modern Normandy (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Bridge past and present in Cédric Klapisch’s visually stunning meditation on time and memory. The film alternates between modern-day cousins sorting through their ancestor’s abandoned Normandy farmhouse and young Adèle’s (Suzanne Lindon) arrival in 1895 Belle Époque Paris during the Lumière brothers’s first film screening. This poetic journey explores how the past shapes our present across two eras of radical change.
‘The Chorus’ (2004)
Above A music teacher transforms troubled boys through song in ‘The Chorus’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
A music teacher transforms troubled boys through song in ‘The Chorus’ (Photo: Hong Kong French Film Festival)
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Journey to a grim correctional boarding school in the post-war French countryside where unemployed music teacher Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot) introduces troubled boys to the transformative power of choral singing. This beloved modern classic earned two Academy Award nominations and remains one of the 21st century’s most heartwarming French films. Experience it on the big screen with Jugnot himself in attendance.
After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
