News from Mexico: the Tour de Cine Francés is in full swing!
Published on 14 October 2025
After attracting over 230,000 spectators last year, the 29th edition of the Tour de Cine Francés runs from September 11 to October 15, 2025. Jean-François Guéganno, director of the Mexico City-based Institut français d'Amérique latine, and Fabienne Aguado, audiovisual attaché, explain the success of this not-to-be-missed event for Mexican and Central American audiences. Now the biggest French film festival abroad, the Tour de Cine Francés celebrates the vitality of French 7ᵉ art thanks to exemplary cooperation between French institutions and Mexican partners.
Can you introduce us to the Tour de Cine Francés?
The Tour de Cine Francés is a traveling cinema program that presents the best of contemporary French cinema in its original subtitled version.
The Tour's organizers, Nueva Era Films, Cinépolis®, the French Embassy in Mexico and the Fédération des Alliances françaises, invite the Mexican public to enjoy this cinematic feast, which each year immerses spectators in the French language and culture.
With over 200 films to its credit, the Tour de Cine Francés has established itself as an annual tradition in the Mexican cultural calendar. Today, it is the world's largest French film festival outside France. Every year, it offers a wide audience a selection of recent films, testifying to the vitality of French cinema.
For its 29th edition, from September 11 to October 15, 2025, 7 French films are presented in over 80 cities in the Mexican Republic. Each film is shown for two to four weeks in each of the cities that are part of the vast screening circuit programmed to simultaneously cover the entire Mexican territory.
Among the films in this year's edition are the latest features by Daniel Auteuil and Cédric Klapisch. How is the selection made, and what were the criteria when it came to choosing these films?
The selection is made by Nueva Era Films, which travels to the Berlinale and Cannes Film Festivals to choose the films. From the 150 films screened, a first choice is made to concoct a line-up representative of the variety of French cinema.
All genres are explored: comedies, thrillers, dramas, films d'auteur... The final choice takes into account the films' anticipated potential for exploitation on Mexican territory. But it's always a gamble!
One of the criteria is also loyalty to certain directors whose work is particularly appreciated in Mexico: François Ozon or Cédric Klapisch are faithfully programmed, and this year are once again a great success! At the press conference to launch TOUR 2025, Cédric Klapisch declared his love of Mexico and Mexican cinema, and is delighted to be able to maintain this relationship with the Mexican public.
The screenings take place in over 210 cinemas in more than 70 cities in Mexico, as well as in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. How are the films received? Do they receive special support?
In Mexico, as in other Central American countries, the films are very well received. The Alliances françaises network helps support the films by organizing premieres. The Panamanian embassy is also particularly active.
The Tour de Cine Francés enjoys widespread support from the press and local partners.
How do you explain the success of the Tour de Cine Francés, which attracted 230,000 spectators in 2024?
No doubt because the films chosen are accessible to all, easy to watch and well-written, well-directed.
In the provinces, in Mexico, only blockbusters from the USA arrive, so this alternative is eagerly awaited. Hearing another language than English appeals to Mexicans, and French culture remains a reference culture.
This year, many spectators testify to their surprise at discovering the city and the Avignon Festival through Johann Dionnet's film Rodrigo enamorado . It made them want to travel to France and experience the Festival.
In Mexico, a large proportion of moviegoers still decide to buy their tickets at the cinema box office or for scheduling reasons. Over the years, the Tour de Cine Francés has succeeded in establishing a relationship of trust with spectators, who sometimes buy their tickets regardless of the film being shown. This is because they know that the selection is always excellent every year. What's more, because they understand that the films will only be available for a limited time, they come back several times to see more than one film, or even all the films. Cinépolis has capitalized on this situation with Cinebono, an offer that provides 4 tickets at a special price.
In 2026, the festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary. How do you see it evolving? Are you planning a special edition?
Objectively, the TOUR has found a formula that works: 7 films running for 4 weeks is the format we settled on after researching different ratios. This corresponds to a fairly ideal exploitation scheme.
Every year, audiences look forward to the TOUR. Some see all the films in less than a week and open up viral word-of-mouth on social networks.
For the future, we're thinking about setting up a digital platform that could complement film visibility once the TOUR is over.
For its 30th edition, we'd like to mark the occasion with a special edition, in keeping with this fine anniversary, which will be celebrated as part of the major Franco-Mexican festival in autumn 2026, organized to mark the bicentenary of diplomatic relations between France and Mexico.
We're considering a number of options: special screenings, exceptional meetings with the film crews or a retrospective of the works and filmmakers of the last three decades.
The idea is to celebrate the loyalty of our audiences and the ongoing commitment of our partners. It will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase everything the TOUR has achieved since its inception: bringing arthouse cinema to a wide audience throughout Mexico (the Central American countries have only hosted the TOUR for 23 years).
Before that and by way of conclusion, would you like to tell us about some of IFAL's year-end highlights?
An intense season lies ahead with the Festival International de Cine de Morelia from October 11 to 23, with a strong French presence: Juliette Binoche, the Queer Palm Lab and a selection of films from Critics' Week. Directors include Robin Campillo and Oliver Laxe. IFAL will be taking part in the Fête du cinéma d'animation from October 11 to 31 in three Mexican cities, with over 20 screenings. On the documentary front, the DocsMX festival will welcome Jean-Gabriel Périot as guest of honor, who will give a masterclass for university audiences and present several of his films. In 2026, Mexico will be the guest country at the CinéLatino Rencontres de Toulouse festival and the Fil Rouge program, including the publication of a guide to Franco-Mexican co-production, in partnership with the master's degree in production at Université Paul Valéry.
Discover the selected films
Director: François Ozon
Distribution: Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Ludivine Sagnier
Screenplay: François Ozon
Production: France, 2024
Genre: Drama
Duration: 103 min
Synopsis
Michelle is a lovely grandmother enjoying a peaceful retirement in a small village in Burgundy, close to her best friend Marie-Claude, with whom she has shared a great complicity since their youth. During the vacations, her daughter Valérie comes to entrust her with Lucas, Michelle's grandson, but things don't go according to plan and a mistake by the grandmother upsets the family plans. Was it an accident? Attempted murder? This subtle, ambiguous thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the end.
Director: Daniel Auteuil
Distribution: Grégory Gadebois, Daniel Auteuil, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Screenplay: Steven Mitz and Daniel Auteuil
Production: France, 2024
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 115 min
Synopsis
Since he succeeded in freeing a recidivist criminal, renowned criminal lawyer Jean Monier lives haunted by guilt and decides never to plead in a criminal case again. However, when he meets Nicolas Milik, a family man accused of murdering his alcoholic wife whose throat has been slit, he is shocked and decides to take up his defense. Convinced of his client's innocence, he will do anything to help him win the case. He'll have to defend him against all odds - and, above all, against himself.
Director: Éric Besnard
Distribution: Alexandra Lamy, Grégory Gadebois, Jérôme Kircher
Screenplay: Éric Besnard
Production: France, 2024
Genre: Dramatic comedy
Duration: 108 min
Synopsis
France, 1889. Louise Violet, a woman marked by a tumultuous past, is sent by the Republican government to a remote village in the French countryside to found the first public school. Her mission: to implement the secular, free and compulsory education system introduced by Jules Ferry's laws, a reform designed to universalize education and emancipate future generations. But his arrival is met with hostility and skepticism from the locals, who see education as a threat to their traditions and a hindrance to their work in the fields. A magnificent film that explores the imperfections and resilience of the human soul.
Director: Cédric Klapisch
Distribution: Suzanne Lindon, Abraham Wapler, Vincent Macaigne
Screenplay: Cédric Klapisch and Santiago Amigorena
Production: France, 2025
Genre: Dramatic comedy
Duration: 126 min
Syonopsis
The film tells the captivating story of a family whose destiny is intertwined with the birth of modern Paris and the Impressionist movement. We follow distant cousins brought together by an unexpected inheritance, who discover the existence of Adèle, who arrived in Paris in 1895 at the age of 21, in search of her mother. As her descendants retrace Adèle's steps to unravel the mysteries of her past, the viewer witnesses a vibrant cultural and industrial revolution. The two temporalities, 1895 and 2024, intertwine and collide, confronting the cousins' contemporary attitudes with life in late-19ᵉ century Paris - a clash that will forever transform their futures.
Directed by Carine Tardieu
With : Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Pio Marmaï, Vimala Pons
Screenplay: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Agnès Feuvre
Production: France, 2025
Genre: Drama
Duration: 105 min
Sandra, a woman fulfilled in her work and attached to her independence, finds herself drawn into an unexpected situation that leads her to share the life of her neighbor and his two children. Little by little, and against all odds, Sandra becomes attached to this adopted family, weaving with them a relationship full of tenderness, where each must learn to respect the other's limits. A moving film that explores the challenges of modern family structures and invites us to redefine family ties.
Directed by Johann Dionnet
With : Baptiste Lecaplain, Alison Wheeler, Lyes Salem
Screenplay: Benoît Graffin, Johann Dionnet, Francis Magnin
Production: France, 2025
Genre: Romantic comedy
Duration: 103 min
Synopsis
Stéphane, a struggling actor, arrives with his troupe at the Avignon Festival to present a play. There, he meets up with Fanny, a renowned actress playing in a classic drama whom he met a few years earlier. Stéphane falls head over heels in love with the young actress and, to get closer to her, pretends to play the lead role in the prestigious play Le Cid. Caught in his lie, he finds himself drawn into a series of funny situations until the truth finally comes out. A comedy full of lightness and charm, promising an excellent time.
Director: Maël Piriou
Distribution: Julia Piaton, Grégory Gadebois, Quentin Dolmaire
Screenplay: Maël Piriou
Production: France, 2025
Genre: Romantic comedy, road movie
Duration: 84 min
Synopsis
The film tells the story of Mélanie, a lawyer who, after being diagnosed with an incurable disease, decides to enjoy life to the full and goes on a trip to Spain with her friend Benjamin, with the aim of exploring her sexuality in a brothel. Mélanie and Benjamin, both in wheelchairs, form an endearing trio with Lucas, a man just out of prison, who drives the old van taking them to their destination. Mixing comedy and drama, this road movie tackles the themes of disability and illness with sincerity and humor. A film both moving and full of gaiety.
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