Nantes Festival des 3 Continents Programme highlights

47th EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL DES 3 CONTINENTS

Programme highlights : Taïwan, Sri Lanka and Egypt in the spotlight

From 21 to 29 November 2025, the Festival des 3 Continents returns to cinemas in Nantes and several other towns in the department for a new edition celebrating cinema from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Ahead of the press conference scheduled for 30 October, during which the full programme will be revealed, the festival is pleased to announce today the highlights of this 47th edition, prepared under particularly difficult conditions due to the sudden and drastic withdrawal of all support from the Pays de la Loire Region.

Official Selection

Comprising an International Competition and Special Screenings, the Official Selection brings together recent or restored feature films (fiction and documentaries), most of which are world, European or French premieres. Four prizes will be awarded to films in the international competition: the Montgolfières d’Or et d’Argent, the Audience Award and the Young Jury Award.

All about love

Love stories in films seem to follow the same tired formula: love at first sight, declarations of love, painful separation and reunion, leading to the expected happy ending. So why do we continue to love them so much? Probably because we don't fall in love every day, and simply seeing this feeling arise and be experienced by others, even on screen, brings us back to the desire to inhabit the very idea of romantic reality. To explore this desire, this thematic programme aims to broaden the idea of love to include multiple forms of attachment (friendship, affection, tenderness), which are all ways of creating a sense of ‘us’ with others, from one continent to another. 

Ang Lee Retrospective (Taiwan)

A major figure in Taiwanese and international cinema, multi-award winner and two-time recipient of the Oscar for Best Director, Ang Lee will be honoured with a presentation of his filmography.

From Pushing Hands (1991) to Gemini Man (2019), via The Wedding Banquet (1993), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), this complete retrospective will allow viewers to grasp the threads of a body of work that is unpredictable in its trajectory and innovative in its approach to film genres. These feature films tackle themes of intimacy, identity and social constraints, uprooting and parentage. 

Retrospective supported by the Taiwan Cultural Centre in Paris and the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture.

Focus on Sri Lankan cinema

The Festival explores Sri Lankan cinema with an exceptional programme of rare works, some of which have been restored, from one of South Asia's least known film industries. This retrospective is the result of a collaboration initiated in April with the National Film Corporation (NFC) and the Sri Lanka National Archives (SLNA) as an extension of the France - India - Sri Lanka Cine Heritage (FISCH) project on the occasion of the restoration of Sumitra Peries' masterpiece Les Filles by the Film Heritage Foundation.

Retrospective supported by the French Embassy in Sri Lanka.

Tribute to Youssef Chahine (Egypt)

As the centenary of his birth (1926–2008) approaches, the Festival could not fail to pay tribute to Youssef Chahine. Through eight films, we wanted to highlight the artistic commitment and modernity of the filmmaker who has had the most profound impact on the history of Arab and world cinema, through his longevity and aesthetic diversity. Admired and controversial in equal measure, but never resigned, Chahine's desire for cinema was that of a country and a people: Egypt against all odds.

In collaboration with Misr International Films.

First Steps Towards Three Continents

First Steps Towards the 3 Continents invites you to discover a selection of films for children aged three and up and their families. Workshops introducing children to the moving image are offered after screenings on weekends and Wednesdays during the festival. This selection for young audiences is also available to nursery and primary school classes in Nantes and Loire-Atlantique with dedicated educational tools.