Sneak Peek: The Journey of Wonder Behind Festival du Film Merveilleux 15th Edition

An exclusive look at how our three-session programming creates an unforgettable cinematic odyssey through the depths of human experience

After fifteen years of celebrating the extraordinary in cinema, Festival du Film Merveilleux returns with its most ambitious programming yet. This year’s carefully curated selection of 28 short films from around the globe doesn’t just showcase remarkable storytelling. It creates a transformative journey that mirrors the very essence of what it means to be human.

At first glance, a film festival might seem like a collection of independent stories, each film standing alone in its artistic vision. But look deeper into the 15th Festival du Film Merveilleux & Imaginaire, and you’ll discover something extraordinary: a carefully woven narrative that spans three evenings, chronicling humanity’s journey from collective blindness through individual awakening to conscious community rebuilding.

Act I: The Awakening “Distorted Realities & Identity Quests”

Our festival opens with eleven films that shatter the comfortable illusions we carry about ourselves and our world. From the haunting Soviet recording studio of Hymne of Plague where past and present collide, to the emerging consciousness of an AI maid in Sequoia, Session 1 invites audiences into a realm where nothing is quite as it seems.

These opening films ask the fundamental questions that have driven storytelling since the beginning of time: Who are we beneath the masks we wear? What truths are we hiding from ourselves? In Underwater Merpeople, we witness the crushing weight of concealed identity, while Toc transforms obsessive-compulsive disorder into a poetic struggle for freedom.

This session doesn’t offer easy answers, instead, it creates the essential discomfort that precedes all meaningful discovery. Like the best surrealist cinema, these films prepare audiences for a journey inward, where the familiar becomes strange and the strange becomes revelatory.

The session asks: “Who are we really, and what lies beneath the surface of our perceived reality?”

Act II: The Trial “Shattered Dreams & Unexpected Encounters”

The festival’s heart lies in its second session, where dreams collide spectacularly with reality. Here, in nine powerful films, we witness what happens when aspiration meets obstacle, when hope confronts harsh truth.

The Shade of Chlorine follows Bilal, whose musical dreams seem impossible until a mysterious encounter opens new horizons. Out of Tune challenges a street musician with an unexpected request that pushes beyond comfort zones. These films don’t shy away from failure. They embrace it as the crucible where character is forged.

The session’s genius lies in its honest portrayal of struggle. From the unraveling world of Mariposa to the underground entrapment of Underground Invaders these stories acknowledge that the path to fulfillment is rarely direct. Yet even in the darkest moments like the tragic sacrifice in Mermaid, we find glimmers of unexpected resilience and grace.

This session asks: “What happens when our dreams crash against the world, and how do we respond to unexpected challenges?”

Act III: The Metamorphosis “Ghosts of the Past & Metamorphoses”

Our final session offers something rare in contemporary cinema: genuine transformation and hope. Eight films guide audiences through the alchemical process where struggle becomes wisdom, where endings become beginnings.

Spring Waltz opens this session with love transcending physical barriers, a perfect metaphor for the power of art to overcome any boundary. The mad science of Malroulante and the domestic magic of Catfish remind us that transformation often requires breaking our most cherished certainties.

The session crescendos with Son, a deeply moving story of a wheelchair-bound boy and his father finding hope through a Mars landing broadcast. It’s a perfect embodiment of the festival’s belief that wonder and possibility can emerge from the most challenging circumstances.

This session declares: “Through change and metamorphosis, we find new possibilities and hope.”

A Festival as Narrative Architecture

What makes this year’s programming extraordinary is how these three sessions function as chapters in a larger story. The story of human experience itself. Like the three-act structure that underlies the greatest narratives, our programming takes audiences through:

Awakening → Struggle → Metamorphosis

This isn’t accidental. After fifteen years of celebrating the merveilleux in cinema, we understand that the most profound film experiences don’t just entertain, they transform. They take audiences on journeys that mirror our own deepest experiences of growth, challenge, and renewal.

Why This Matters Now

In an era of algorithmic recommendations and fragmented viewing experiences, Festival du Film Merveilleux offers something increasingly rare: a carefully crafted journey designed to be experienced as a whole. These aren’t just individual films, they’re movements in a larger symphony, each enhancing and deepening the others.

Our international selection spanning from China to France, from Spain to Kazakhstan proves that the fundamental human experiences of questioning, struggling, and transforming transcend all cultural boundaries. In a world that often feels divided, cinema becomes our common language of wonder.

The Art of Curation as Cultural Bridge-Building

This programming has been crafted by Bénédicte Beaugeois and Maureen Gerby, who have performed the delicate art of creating narrative coherence from diverse voices. Like puzzle-makers, they have discovered how films from Kazakhstan speak to stories from Belgium, how German directors dialogue with Korean filmmakers, and how French narratives harmonize with Russian ones. In their hands, the universal human experience emerges not despite our cultural differences, but because of them each film becoming a piece in a larger mosaic that reveals the shared patterns underlying all human storytelling.

Join the Journey

Our 15th Edition invites you to experience cinema not just as entertainment, but as transformation. Over the course of three sessions totaling just under six hours, you’ll witness stories that challenge, inspire, and ultimately remind you why we gather in dark rooms to share dreams projected in light.

This is more than a film festival, it’s a celebration of cinema’s power to reflect our deepest truths and highest aspirations. It’s an invitation to rediscover wonder in a world that too often seems to have forgotten it.

Come experience the merveilleux. Come discover what transformation feels like.

Festival du Film Merveilleux 15th Edition – Where Wonder Meets Cinema