20/01/2026 - Ingrid Chikhaoui, Joséphine Darcy Hopkins, Zoé Labasse, Romain André and Romuald Rodrigues Andrade are partaking in the 21st edition of the programme steered by the Angers European First Film Festival

l-r: Participants Ingrid Chikhaoui, Joséphine Darcy Hopkins, Zoé Labasse, Romain André and Romuald Rodrigues Andrade

Carla Simón, Rebecca Zlotowski, Lukas Dhont, Claire Burger, Clément Cogitore, Filippo Meneghetti, Jonathan Millet, Emmanuel Marre, the duo composed of Fanny Liatard and Jérémie Trouilh, Hubert Charuel, Guillaume Brac, Rachel Lang and, more recently, Alexe Poukine (Kika [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexe Poukine
film profile]), Margaux Elouagari (see our article), Mathilde Profit (article) and Marie-Rosselet-Ruiz (article): these are just a few of the many young filmmakers whose talent has blossomed following the selection of their debut feature film projects in the Angers Workshops, founded in 2005 by Jeanne Moreau and the Angers European First Film Festival.

The 21st edition of the programme, which kicked off yesterday and which will continue for five days as part of the festival’s 38th outing (read our article), will provide three women directors (Ingrid Chikhaoui, Joséphine Darcy Hopkins and Zoé Labasse) and their male counterparts Romain André and Romuald Rodrigues Andrade with an opportunity to fine-tune their first film projects. On hand to offer artistic and technical advice this week is filmmaker Thomas Cailley, screenwriter Nathalie Hertzberg, director of photography Marine Atlan, composer Michel Petrossian and his peer Carla Pallone, editor Lilian Corbeille and casting director Julie Allione.

For the record, projects that took part in the 2025 Ateliers d’Angers included Chien noir by Nyima Cartier, Une de perdue, une de perdue by Mathilde Elu, Passer l’hiver by Valentine Lapière, La Faille by Kahina Le Querrec and Helter Skelter by Paul Vincent de Lestrade.

This year’s selected projects are as follows:

Vie sauvage et bien-être - Romain André
Producer: Mabel Films
50-year old Émilie, a tough butch woman with a shaved head, works part-time as a sales assistant at “Vie Sauvage et Bien-Être” (Wild Life and Well-Being). She wants to build a more stable life for herself in order to take in her 18-year-old niece Katell, for whom she feels responsible since her sister’s death. A promotion to assistant manager and a new apartment allow her to look forward to a reassuring future. But then the building's sewage system backs up into her bathroom, just as a gigantic UFO lands off the coast of the Falkland Islands. While the whole world, torn between terror and fascination, is preoccupied with the alien spacecraft, Émilie finds herself alone with the water damage and her jeopardised plans for the future.

Mais la mer elle s’invente pas - Ingrid Chikhaoui
Producer: Les Films Norfolk
It’s August 1999 on the Atlantic coast and eleven-year-old Judith is earnestly preparing for the Y2K bug, just as her father – who’s away on a scientific assignment - has taught her to do. When her mother, Estelle, turns their vacation on this magnificent coastline into a surprise installation, Judith takes over an old fishing hut and transforms it into a fortress, a refuge from the chaos of a world that‘s beginning to slip away from her. Faced with the unexpected disasters wrought by winter, and despite all the wounds, illusions and things left unsaid, the mother and daughter each try in their own way to rebuild their family.

Docile - Joséphine Darcy Hopkins
Producers: Kazak Productions, TBC Productions
Following the death of their mother, two sisters aged 8 and 12, Madeleine and Eugénie, spend the summer with their grandparents whom they’ve never previously met. Their grandparents are funny and welcoming, and the girls soon feel at home, as if they’ve found a new family. But everything changes when their grandfather, Paul, gives Madeleine a hairless rat and makes her promise not to tell anyone. 

Les Danseurs de Strasbourg - Zoé Labasse
Producers: Avenue B Productions, Kalpa Films
It’s 1518 in Strasbourg, and surgeon’s assistant Hilde is convinced that dissection is the future of medicine. Her status prevents her from studying anatomy, but then Strasbourg is struck by a strange epidemic: women and men begin dancing day and night, unable to stop, with some succumbing to exhaustion. Determined to find a cure, Hilde opens up the dead dancers’ bodies. But when she plunges her hands into their flesh, she’s overcome by dizziness.

1998 - Romuald Rodrigues Andrade
Co-written by Martin Drouot
Producer: Films de Force Majeure
It’s June 1998 in Vitrolles and, as is the case elsewhere, World Cup fever is in full swing. Except that here, there’s a hot topic dividing the town: the National Front has won the mayoral election. Over the course of the summer, Cédric fails his high school exams and starts looking for a job. He’s black and constantly reminded of his skin colour. His little brother, Stanley, meanwhile, is having a better experience of the summer holidays. As France wins match after match, flying the “black, white, Arab” flag high in the sky, the National Front turns their lives upside down forever. 

(Translated from French)