Presented by the French Studies program, Human Rights program, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, Literature program, Center for Moving Image Arts, and the Division of Languages and Literature.
Spring 2026 Films
March 12, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Albertine French Film Festival: Soundtrack to a Coup d'État
Director: Johan Grimonprez, 2024, 2h30 min.
March 12, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
This festival is supported by a grant from Albertine Cinémathèque, part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine–The French Institute for Culture and Education, and Albertine Foundation. It is made possible with the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC). All films will be introduced in English and shown with English subtitles.
Sponsored by: French Studies, Human Rights, CMIA, GSS, Literature, and the Division of Languages & Literature
March 26, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Starr Cinema, Upstate Films, Rhinebeck, NY
Albertine French Film Festival: Les fantômes
Director: Jonathan Millet, 2024, 1h46 min.
March 26, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Starr Cinema, Upstate Films, Rhinebeck, NY
Two years after being released from Syrian jail, Hamid (break out star Adam Bessa) is making ends meet as a construction worker in the French city of Strasbourg, where, haunted by the memory of his imprisonment, the young man searches tirelessly for the man who tortured him, determined to get his revenge--but what's the real price of vengeance for the person seeking it? Inspired by true events, Jonathan Millet's deeply researched thriller excavates the too-little-examined moral dilemmas of today’s political landscape.
This festival is supported by a grant from Albertine Cinémathèque, part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine–The French Institute for Culture and Education, and Albertine Foundation. It is made possible with the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC). All films will be introduced in English and shown with English subtitles.
Sponsored by: French Studies, Human Rights, CMIA, GSS, Literature, and the Division of Languages & Literature
April 7, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center
Albertine French Film Festival: L’armée des ombres
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969, 2h25 min.
April 7, 2026 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center
The most personal film by the acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samouraï), who had participated in the French Resistance himself, this tragic masterpiece, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the Resistance. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret star as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime. Long underappreciated in France and unseen in the United States, the atmospheric and gripping thriller Army of Shadows is now widely recognized as the summit of Melville’s career, channeling the exquisite minimalism of his gangster films to create an unsparing tale of defiance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
“...any moviegoers with a weakness for dry heroism, dark-toned humor, and storytelling of pantherish pace and grace—in short, lovers of cinema—should reach for their fedoras, turn up the collars of their coats, and sneak to this picture through a mist of rain.” – The New Yorker
This festival is supported by a grant from Albertine Cinémathèque, part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine–The French Institute for Culture and Education, and Albertine Foundation. It is made possible with the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC). All films will be introduced in English and shown with English subtitles.
Sponsored by: French Studies, Human Rights, CMIA, GSS, Literature, and the Division of Languages & Literature
May 4, 2026 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Albertine French Film Festival: Orlando
Director: Paul B. Preciado, 2023, 1h38 min.
May 4, 2026 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado's Berlin Film Festival award-winning doc tells his and others' stories of transition through unique reenactments and visual interpretations of Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography. “The first trans masterpiece.” – B. Ruby Rich, Film Quarterly. “Essential… funny, intellectually provocative, and, finally, deeply moving.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
This festival is supported by a grant from Albertine Cinémathèque, part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine–The French Institute for Culture and Education, and Albertine Foundation. It is made possible with the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC). All films will be introduced in English and shown with English subtitles.
Sponsored by: French Studies, Human Rights, CMIA, GSS, Literature, and the Division of Languages & Literature
Albertine Cinémathèque is part of the French for All initiative by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation and is made possible by the support of the Centre National Du Cinéma et De L'Image Animée (CNC)