Festivals - The American French Film Festival 2025: A Private Life Opens with Elegance and Mystery

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Directors Guild of America Theatr, 28 october 2025

The 2025 edition of The American French Film Festival (TAFFF) opens in style and subtle provocation with Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée (A Private Life), an elegantly unsettling black comedy chosen to launch the festival’s 29th edition at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Hollywood. This choice sets the tone for a week celebrating the ongoing creative dialogue between France and the United States, under the banner of the Franco-American Cultural Fund — a partnership between the DGA, MPA, SACEM, and WGAW. Zlotowski, who has steadily built a name for herself with films like An Easy Girl and Other People’s Children, returns with her most mature and provocative work yet, an exploration of moral ambiguity and psychological unrest. Backed by Sony Pictures Classics for its U.S. release, Vie Privée merges emotional intimacy and dark humor in a way that has already won over Cannes audiences, where it premiered out of competition and received a ten-minute standing ovation.

Vie Privée follows Lilian Steiner, a respected psychiatrist played by Jodie Foster, whose world unravels after the sudden death of one of her patients. Convinced it was murder, she embarks on her own obsessive investigation — one that reveals more about herself than she ever intended to face. Written by Rebecca Zlotowski, Anne Berest, and Gaëlle Macé, the film walks a tightrope between psychological thriller and social satire, capturing that uniquely French balance between irony and existential dread. The ensemble cast — including Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, and Luana Bajrami — circles around Foster’s magnetic presence, a rare English-speaking star who fully immerses herself in the rhythms of French dialogue. Shot by cinematographer George Lechaptois, edited by Géraldine Mangenot, and scored by Robin Rob Coudert, Vie Privée unfolds with the calm intensity of a confession whispered too loudly.

Choosing Vie Privée to open TAFFF feels symbolic — a perfect emblem of the festival’s mission to bridge artistic traditions and sensibilities. This year’s program, running through November 3 on Sunset Boulevard, showcases forty-two feature films spanning genres and generations. Highlights include François Ozon’s L’Étranger (distributed in the U.S. by Music Box Films), Jafar Panahi’s Un simple accident (winner of the 2025 Palme d’Or and France’s Oscar entry, distributed by Neon), and Sylvain Chomet’s animated Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol (Sony Pictures Classics). The lineup also introduces two new sections: New Wave Spotlight, devoted to first and second features, and New Horizons, spotlighting bold and boundary-pushing works that redefine what French cinema can be in a global context.

Beyond its artistic scope, this 29th edition reaffirms TAFFF’s reputation as a crossroads for cultural exchange. The selection includes films that traveled from Venice, Berlin, and Cannes — such as À pied d’œuvre by Valérie Donzelli, Enzo by Robin Campillo, Ari by Léonor Serraille, and 13 jours, 13 nuits by Martin Bourboulon — each one illustrating a vibrant, evolving landscape of Francophone cinema. Together, they form a portrait of a generation of filmmakers unafraid to probe personal stories through political lenses, or vice versa.

Shot in Paris and Normandy between September and November 2024, Vie Privée will be released in France by Ad Vitam on November 26, 2025, and will reach U.S. theaters in January 2026 following a one-week qualifying run in December. Produced by Frédéric Jouve for Les Films Velvet, the film continues Zlotowski’s longstanding collaboration with her trusted creative team. The early acquisition by Sony Pictures Classics underscores the film’s international appeal — particularly the presence of Jodie Foster, whose command of French adds both authenticity and allure. It marks only the third time in her career that Foster performs in French, yet her ease and precision make it feel entirely natural, as though she had been part of this cinematic world all along.

TAFFF has always been more than a showcase; it is a meeting ground for ideas. Alongside the screenings, the festival hosts discussions and masterclasses, including one featuring composer Guillaume Roussel and another exploring the artistry of French visual effects, with contributions from renowned studios Mac Guff, Buf, and MPC. These exchanges mirror the spirit of the films themselves — collaborative, inventive, and unafraid of blurring the lines between art and technology, emotion and craft.

The festival will close with the world premiere of Gourou by Yann Gozlan, starring Pierre Niney, a fitting finale to a lineup that thrives on variety and ambition. Yet for now, all eyes remain fixed on Zlotowski’s Vie Privée and its cast, captured in a striking official photograph by Sophie Janinet — an image that radiates the quiet confidence of an auteur at the height of her powers. Zlotowski’s cinema is both intimate and incisive, offering not moral lessons but mirrors. With Vie Privée, she delivers a film that dissects the porous boundary between private truth and public façade, between confession and performance.

Opening TAFFF with Vie Privée feels like an invitation — not just to watch, but to reflect. Rebecca Zlotowski has crafted a story that hums with tension, empathy, and dark wit, one that unites Parisian elegance with Hollywood precision. As the lights dim inside the Directors Guild of America Theatre, Vie Privée becomes more than an opening-night film. It stands as a reminder of what Franco-American cinema at its best can achieve: intimacy that travels, emotion that translates, and art that speaks fluently across borders.

Synopsis : 
Lilian Steiner is a renowned psychiatrist. When she learns of the death of one of her patients, she becomes convinced that it was murder. Disturbed, she decides to conduct her own investigation.

A Private Life (Vie privée)
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski
Written by Rebecca Zlotowski, Anne Berest, Gaëlle Macé
Produced by Frederic Jouve
Starring  Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira
Cinematography : George Lechaptois
Edited by Géraldine Mangenot
Music by Robin Rob Coudert
Production companies : Les Films Velvet, France 3 Cinéma
Distributed by Ad Vitam (France), Sony Pictures Classics (United Statses)
Release dates : 20 May 2025 (Cannes), 26 November 2025 (France)
Running time : 103 minutes

Photos:  Sophie Janinet