The next installment of the Ohio State Department of French and Italian’s French Film Festival, a Wednesday screening of “Anatomy of a Fall,” will take place in room 160 of 209 W. 18th Ave. Credit: Will O’Malley | Lantern Reporter
Ohio State’s Department of French and Italian has organized a brand-new French Film Festival, with screenings officially beginning last Thursday.
The festival was created in partnership with the Albertine Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects, according to its website. Culturally prominent French and Francophone films will be shown at Hagerty Hall on select dates until Nov. 20.
Following Thursday’s presentation of 2023’s “The Animal Kingdom,” the festival’s next featured film will be 2023’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” according to Ohio State’s website. The legal drama follows a woman accused of murdering her husband, with only the couple’s blind son as a witness.
“Anatomy of a Fall” — which also won Best Original Screenplay at the 2024 Academy Awards, according to a March 10 article from the Associated Press — is scheduled to be screened 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at 209 W. 18th Ave. This will mark the only screening not to be held at Hagerty Hall, according to the department’s website.
According to the department’s website, five films apart from “The Animal Kingdom” and “Anatomy of a Fall” will be exhibited in the coming weeks.
One such film is 2021’s “Casablanca Beats,” which is about a rapper-turned-teacher who gives hip-hop lessons to underprivileged kids in Morocco, according to Ohio State’s website.
The festival’s final entry, 2023’s “Mars Express,” is an animated flick that depicts a murder on the planet Mars, according to Ohio State’s website.
Adela Lechintan-Siefer — an assistant professor of teaching who has expertise in French-language cinema and literature, according to her profile page on the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures website — said she helped organize the festival.
Also the interim assistant director of Ohio State’s French language program, Lechintan-Siefer said these films are not just entertaining. They are also less accessible than more mainstream titles, as many are not readily available to view on streaming services.
“It’s great to have access to these films. Most of them are contemporary, award-winning films that are very rare to see,” Lechintan-Siefer said. “It’s great to offer a variety of films that speak about current issues in the French and Francophone world, and are entertaining but also educational.”
When finalizing the film list, Lechintan-Siefer said she tried to ensure that the selected movies centered around different themes and spanned different genres.
“We tried to have films that represent the diversity of the Francophone world, so films showing cultural and social aspects from a lot of French-speaking countries, but also current issues such as concerns with the environment, immigration, human nature and solidarity of youth,” Lechintan-Siefer said. “We also tried to have science fiction, drama, historical and animated films.”
As noted earlier, “The Animal Kingdom” — a science-fiction work about a wave of mutations that turn humans into animals — kicked off the festival’s programming Thursday, according to the department’s website.
Margaret Flinn, associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Ohio State, was a guest speaker at Thursday’s showing. She said the film sparked some meaningful discussion among attendees.
“[‘The Animal Kingdom’] is a thought-provoking film, [and] the student reaction was definitely positive,” Flinn said. “Afterwards, it was kind of an informal conversation, almost like how you would talk to your friends at a coffee shop after seeing a movie.”
Flinn said French cinema has a reputation for being strictly artistic and serious, despite the fact the country produces numerous films relating to pop culture.
“The French make lots of popular-genre films that are silly, easy and adventurous — that’s just not necessarily what gets distributed globally,” Flinn said.
Lechintan-Siefer said these events offer a distinct viewing experience many students won’t be able to get anywhere else.
“We plan to have a guest speaker at every event. I think an audience watches a film differently as they know more about it, so having an expert introduce the film was great,” Lechintan-Siefer said. “I loved the post-screening conversations where people asked questions and made comments because this is the true experience of cinema, watching a film together and talking about it together.”
Lechintan-Siefer said the festival wouldn’t be possible without a grant from the Albertine Foundation; therefore, she said the department feels grateful to collaborate with the organization and offer Ohio State students a special opportunity.
“It is a grant that has been offered for many years to institutions, mostly universities and schools who organize a film festival,” Lechintan-Siefer said. “It is very competitive, but we won the grant and are lucky to be able to offer these films to students and anybody else who would like to come. It’s open to the public and it’s free.”
For more information about the French Film Festival, including upcoming screenings and a complete list of featured films, visit the Ohio State Department of French and Italian’s website.
