Our Femmes First selection shines a spotlight on a century of French and Francophone women filmmakers, and films centering on women’s issues in French society today. We open with short films by pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, widely considered the first narrative filmmaker back in the 1890s. The programme also includes Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Jane by Charlotte  – an intimate portrait of her mother Jane Birkin, and two winners in the Cannes 2022 category Un Certain Regard: Rodeo by Lola Quivoron and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan.