A list of French-produced films scheduled for release in 2021.
Luc Paul Maurice Besson is a French filmmaker. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the 2014 sci-fi action film Lucy and the 2017 space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Jane Mallory Birkin was a British and French actress and singer. She had a decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
Robert Bresson was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film. Much of his work is known for being tragic in story and nature.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a 1964 musical romantic drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music by Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo star as two young lovers in the French city of Cherbourg, separated by circumstance. The film's dialogue is entirely sung as recitative, including casual conversation, and is sung-through, or through-composed, like some operas and stage musicals. It has been seen as the second of an informal tetralogy of Demy films that share some of the same actors, characters, and overall atmosphere of romantic melancholy, coming after Lola (1961) and before The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and Model Shop (1969). The French-language film was a co-production between France and West Germany.
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and model who began her career as a fashion model before working in Italian, American and French films. Bellucci has an eclectic filmography in a range of genres and languages, and her accolades include the David di Donatello, Globo d'oro and Nastro d'Argento awards. In 2018, Forbes Italy named Bellucci one of the 100 most-successful Italian women.
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor, singer, filmmaker, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic icon of the 20th century, he emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Jason Statham is an English actor and martial artist. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, gritty, or violent. Statham has been credited for leading the resurgence of action films during the 2000s and 2010s. His film career through 2017 generated over $1.5 billion in ticket sales, making him one of the film industry's most bankable stars.
Au revoir les enfants is an autobiographical 1987 film written, produced, and directed by Louis Malle. It is based on the actions of Père Jacques, a French priest and headmaster who attempted to shelter Jewish children during the Holocaust. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Marion Cotillard is a French actress. She has appeared in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions and her accolades include an Academy Award from two nominations, a British Academy Film Award from two nominations, two César Awards from eight nominations, a European Film Award from two nominations, a Golden Globe Award from four nominations, a Lumières Award from two nominations and a Chopard Trophy. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010 and was promoted to Officer in 2016, the same year she was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001. Cotillard was the face of the Lady Dior handbag from 2008 to 2017, and since 2020, she has been the face of the fragrance Chanel No. 5.
Murmur of the Heart is a 1971 French comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Louis Malle. It stars Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux and Daniel Gélin. Written as Malle's semi-autobiography, the film tells a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy (Ferreux) growing up in bourgeois surroundings in post-World War II Dijon, France, with a complex relationship with his Italian-born mother (Massari).
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher. He also starred in Claude Chabrol's La Demoiselle d'honneur.
Antoine de Caunes is a French television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline Joubert. He is the father of the actress Emma de Caunes.
Hitchcockian films are those made by various filmmakers, with the styles and themes similar to those of Alfred Hitchcock.
Francine Racette is a Canadian retired actress. She is best known for her performances in Au revoir les enfants, Lumière and The Disappearance. She was the third wife of actor Donald Sutherland for 52 years until his death in 2024 and mother of three of his sons: actor Rossif Sutherland, actor Angus Sutherland and Roeg Sutherland.
Hail Mary is a 1985 French avant-garde erotic drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of the virgin birth. It was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.
Florian Zeller is a French novelist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film director. He has written over a dozen plays, that have been staged worldwide and have made him one of the most celebrated contemporary playwrights.
Korkoro is a 2009 French drama film written and directed by Tony Gatlif, starring Francophone actors Marc Lavoine, Marie-Josée Croze and James Thiérrée. The film's cast were of many nationalities such as Albanian, Kosovar, Georgian, Serbian, French, Norwegian, and nine Romani people Gatlif recruited in Transylvania.
Adèle Exarchopoulos is a French actress. She had her career breakthrough starring as Adèle in the romance Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013). At the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, she became the youngest person in the history of the festival to be awarded the Palme d'Or which she won alongside her co-star Léa Seydoux.