Ben Croll Matt Dillon, Alice Diop and Karla Sofia Gascon will bring their springtime spirit to this month’s Nouvelles Vagues Film Festival, now running from June 18 – 23 in Biarritz.

Launched last year, the nascent festival invites both established and emerging talents to share an expansive vision of youth, hosting a competition dedicated to young adult stories overseen by a jury all under the age of 35. “Across all sections, this festival shines the spotlight on younger generations and celebrates young characters on screen,” says programing director Lili Hinstin. “We wanted to look to the future through the prism of the next generation, and to interrogate the questions and contemporary issues important to them.” To that end, this sophomore edition kicked off with the world premiere of “Night Call,” a Brussels-set thriller, taking place over the course of one heated night, foisting an unsuspecting locksmith into a criminal underworld as civil rights protests roil the larger the city around him. “This is a very modern film, folding in the Black Lives Matter movement through script and staging without becoming [a political drama],” says Hinstin. “It’s a thriller following a young man on an extraordinary adventure while avoiding common clichés about race.

Opening the festival with such a contemporary title felt like a manifesto for us” The eight-film competition also hosts the French premieres of Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun,” Rich Peppiatt’s “Kneecap,” and Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross’ “Gasoline Rainbow,” as well as Cannes Œil d’Or winner “The Brink of Dreams” from Ayman El Amir & Nada Riyadh and director Shuchi Talati’s Sundance primed “Girls Will Be Girls,” led by “All We Imagine As Light” star Kani Kusruti.

Matt Dillon, Alice Diop Celebrate Coming-of-Age Films at Nouvelles Vagues Biarritz Film Festival; ‘Emilia Pérez’ Breakout Karla Sofía Gascón Named Guest of Honor

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