Tickets for the 18 November screening of A Place For Her start at S$11 for reduced, student and senior ticket holders. The 42nd edition runs from 12 to 29 November 2026 and brings 34 films to Shaw Theatres, Filmhouse, Alliance Française de Singapour, libraries, neighbourhood community clubs and an open-air screen at Palawan Beach on Sentosa. French cinema can seem like something for a quiet arthouse crowd that already knows every director. This year, though, plenty of the screenings are close to home.
The full programme and tickets are already up on the vOilah! website.
Plan Your Festival at a Glance
- When: 12 to 29 November 2026
- Cinema venues: Shaw Theatres, Filmhouse and Alliance Française de Singapour
- Neighbourhood venues: 20 screenings across 10 community clubs and Integrated Community Hubs, plus library spaces and Serangoon Garden Country Club
- Open-air: one special screening at Palawan Beach, Sentosa
- Tickets: The 18 November screening of A Place For Her lists reduced, student and senior tickets from S$11.
- Community and beach screenings: free last year. Check this year’s entry details before you go
- Book first: Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Q&A screenings
- Dates to circle: 14 November, 2pm and 22 November, 10am (Pets on a Train); 18 November (A Place For Her at Alliance Française)
The festival is organised by the Embassy of France in Singapore and co-presented by Alliance Française de Singapour, Shaw Organisation and Filmhouse. The Embassy of France in Singapore bills it as Singapore’s longest-running foreign film festival.
Beach, Library or Community Club?
The community programme matters most if you don’t live near a cinema. The People’s Association (PA), the organisation behind Singapore’s community clubs, is back as a partner with 20 screenings across 10 community clubs and Integrated Community Hubs. You may well find a French film playing in your own neighbourhood, so you won’t need to head into town.
What to do: Look up the community screening list on voilah.sg and find the club nearest you before you book anything in town.
The National Library and Archives Board and Serangoon Garden Country Club have joined as partners this year. They add library spaces and another neighbourhood venue to the map, which puts the festival in places where people already spend their weekends.
Families should plan around the special open-air screening at Palawan Beach on Sentosa. It’s part of a continued collaboration with Sentosa’s Movies by the Beach.
Before you pack the picnic: Last year’s community and beach screenings were free. Confirm this year’s date and entry details on the festival site, then sort out your mat and snacks.
Amélie’s Director Is in Town
If you’ve seen one French film in your life, there’s a good chance it was Amélie. The festival calls it one of the defining films of modern French cinema. Its director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is coming to Singapore for a special retrospective with at least four screenings, and each one is followed by a Q&A. That gives you several chances to ask him how he builds those strange, storybook worlds.
We’d watch his latest film, Violette, first. It follows the caretaker of a cemetery in a small Burgundy town who spends her days listening to other people’s confidences. Then a police officer’s investigation forces her to face a long-buried truth about her own past. It sounds like a quieter, more intimate Jeunet than the one most people know.
Three more filmmakers are joining him for post-screening Q&As:
- Julien Chheng directed the animated films Muyi And The Handsome General and Ernest and Celestine: A Journey in Charabia
- Alexandre Castagnetti made The Phantom Of The Opera
- David Foenkinos, a novelist, screenwriter and director, brings Delicacy, a tender story about love and second chances. It’s presented with the Singapore Writers Festival, so it’s a good one for your book-club friends
De Gaulle Leads the Programme
The line-up is headed by a two-part portrait of Charles de Gaulle, the French general who became a central figure of the French Resistance during the Second World War. De Gaulle I: Tilting Iron and De Gaulle II: The Sovereign Age follow the difficult choices that shaped a nation’s future. According to the organisers, the first part screened in the Official Selection, Out of Competition, at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Fred Cavayé’s new take on Les Misérables sits alongside the pair. It’s adapted from Victor Hugo’s novel about injustice, redemption and the people crushed between them. If you only know the story from the stage musical, this is your chance to see a French director retell it on the big screen.
Women Who Refuse Silence
Women On Trial revisits a landmark fight for women’s rights in France. According to the festival, it was another Out of Competition title at Cannes this year. Malika tells the true story of a woman who overcame poverty, discrimination and a childhood accident to chase her dream of becoming a mezzo-soprano.
Keep 18 November free if this strand speaks to you. Mélisa Godet’s A Place For Her, which centres on women’s experiences and solidarity, gets a special screening at Alliance Française de Singapour that day.
Also at Filmhouse: a tribute screening of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning animated film about identity, freedom and resistance. If you’ve only ever watched it at home, this is a chance to catch it on a cinema screen.
Paris on the Big Screen
Paris gets its own strand, built on romance and mystery:
- The Electric Kiss opened the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. It blends romance and fantasy in early 20th-century Paris, an era of artistic innovation and social change
- The Phantom Of The Opera, Castagnetti’s film, plays out behind the curtains of the Palais Garnier, the city’s legendary opera house
- Delicacy comes with a Foenkinos Q&A
Book all three and you have a Paris triple bill without the long-haul flight. You could also spread them out as date nights across two weekends.
Bring the Kids and Grandparents
Nearly ten family-friendly films are in the mix. They include Asterix – The Kingdom of Nubia, Pets on a Train and Mune: Guardian of the Moon, along with older favourites like The Choir and Sophie’s Misfortunes.
Family dates to book: The festival site lists Pets on a Train on Saturday, 14 November at 2pm and Sunday, 22 November at 10am.
Before vOilah! starts: If your animation fans want French cinema sooner, it’s also part of the line-up at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). SGIFF runs until 1 November, which is before vOilah! opens on 12 November.
Tickets and Our Picks
The 18 November screening of A Place For Her lists reduced, student and senior tickets from S$11.
If you can only make one session, book a Jeunet Q&A first. Hearing the man behind Amélie talk through his work is the rarest thing on this programme. Families should hold out for the Palawan Beach night. If the women’s strand moves you, 18 November is the date for A Place For Her.
🗓️ Date: 12 to 29 November 2026
📍 Location: Shaw Theatres, Alliance Française de Singapour, Filmhouse, Palawan Beach and participating community venues
🎟️ Tickets: The 18 November screening of A Place For Her lists reduced, student and senior tickets from S$11.
🔗 Details: voilah.sg
That’s 18 days, 34 films and a screen on the sand, which is a lot of French cinema to fit around work and errands. Pick your Jeunet night first and plan the rest of November around it. The full programme and tickets are on the vOilah! French Film Festival website, so grab your Q&A seats early before your friends take the good ones!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of vOilah! French Film Festival, Les Films Pelleas and Marie-Camille Orlando.
Read us first on Google: add DANAMIC as a preferred source and our stories show up more in your Top Stories and AI results.
