About FRENCH PREMIERE
Launched in January 2024, French Premiere brings a new French film to the Bay Area every month, screened in its original French version with English subtitles.
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In the U.S., many excellent French films have minimal theatrical runs—sometimes just a few days—and are usually confined to major cities like New York or Los Angeles. As a result, the chance to see a recent French film is often restricted to daytime festival screenings, with films soon relegated to Video-On-Demand or streaming platforms, cutting short The Cinema Experience—the shared magic of watching stories unfold on the Big Screen.
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In the Bay Area, many French films never make it to theaters. French Premiere offers a unique opportunity to catch these films in cinemas just a few months after their release in France.
Don't miss out—seating is limited!​​
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Arnaud de Fontenay
I've always been involved in the cinema world, spending twenty-five years as a lawyer for French production companies. I had the opportunity to work with notable figures like Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Luc Besson's former partner at EuropaCorp, and the talented actor-director Alain Chabat.
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In 2017, I moved to San Francisco. For the past six years, I’ve been organizing screenings of French films at a lovely theater in the French High School (LFSF), which can host about three hundred spectators. It’s been successful, with many screenings drawing enthusiastic audiences.
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In January 2024, I launched French Premiere. This initiative sprang from my observations that the French community here stays well-informed about cultural events. They avidly read the French press and engage with major national media, yet there's a palpable frustration about not being able to see cinema releases in real-time.
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French Premiere aims to address this frustration. We provide a monthly screening of a very recent French film in its original language with English subtitles.​​
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Attending a film at the cinema leaves lasting memories: the specific theater, the time, who you were with, and what you did before and after.
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My commitment is to ease the disappointment of being well-informed but unable to watch the films the audience desires.
With French Premiere, I am dedicated to recreating that magical cinema experience monthly.
