Mon Premier Festival 2026, the Paris kids film festival, returns for its 22nd edition from October 21 to 27 under the theme “Dans tous les sens” (In All Directions). Produced and programmed by the association Enfances au Cinéma for the City of Paris, the festival brings together ov er 100 films, 300 screenings and 24 international previews in 21 venues across 15 arrondissements. Flat rate: €4.50 per screening.
With nearly 40,000 spectators in 2025, the Paris kids film festival has become the gateway to the big screen for young Parisians. Q&As, workshops, live-music screenings and film performances extend every screening.
Barbara Schulz, patron of Mon Premier Festival 2026
Actress, director and screenwriter Barbara Schulz is this year’s patron. César-nominated for Most Promising Actress for Pascal Thomas’s La Dilettante, twice awarded a Molière (Joyeuses Pâques in 2001, As You Like It in 2022), she reaches every audience, from Kaamelott to Le Mystère de la chambre jaune. In 2025, she directed her first feature, Le Secret de Khéops, a family adventure starring Fabrice Luchini and Julia Piaton.
She opens the festival on Wednesday, October 21 at 3pm at the Forum des images, with the preview of Muyi, la légende du village des femmes, Julien Chheng’s animated feature presented at the Annecy Festival (French release February 3, 2027).
The closing ceremony takes place on Tuesday, October 27 at 2pm at the Cinéma des Cinéastes, with the awards and the preview of New York, Miriam et moi by Rémy Schaepman and Léahn Vivier-Chapas.
“In All Directions”: disorder as a driving force
Joyful mischief, absurd situations, overflowing emotions, bodies in motion: the 2026 theme celebrates the unexpected and the freedom to step outside the frame. Little Miss Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind, Back to the Future and Bringing Up Baby embody this spirit.
The “Dans la Nature” (In Nature) selection explores our relationship with the living world, including Vincent Munier’s Le Chant des forêts. Among the cult classics, Frozen, Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra and Raiders of the Lost Ark return to the big screen.
Italian cinema in the spotlight
To mark 70 years of the Paris-Rome twinning, the festival pays tribute to Italian cinema, from Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima to Andrea Di Stefano’s Il maestro, via Lorenzo Mattotti’s The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily and a carte blanche to the Cinema dei Piccoli, Rome’s cinema for young audiences. Andrea Di Stefano and Lorenzo Mattotti will meet the audience.
Our picks at the Paris kids film festival
Recent film with the director
Il maestro by Andrea Di Stefano (Italy, 2h05, original version with French subtitles, ages 13+)
The 1980s. Felice, 13, a shy and gifted teenager, suffocates under his father’s ambitions. His father entrusts him to Raul Gatti, a self-proclaimed former tennis champion. From tournament to tournament, an unlikely duo takes shape. Presented at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, this road movie led by Pierfrancesco Favino shows how a defeat, well lived, becomes a victory.
Studio des Ursulines, 10 rue des Ursulines, Paris 5th
Friday, October 23, 5:45pm ★ Q&A with director Andrea Di Stefano
Preview with guest
Irish Travellers by Alexander Murphy (France/Ireland, 1h45, original version with French subtitles, ages 10+, French release October 28)
Presented at Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival, this documentary follows the O’Reilly family through the seasons: the parents and their ten children, living in an old mobile home by the roadside, in the Irish Traveller tradition. A warm portrait, full of life.
Escurial, 11 boulevard de Port-Royal, Paris 13th
Monday, October 26, 2:15pm ★ Q&A with director Alexander Murphy
Watch the Irish Travellers trailer
Previews
Dua by Blerta Basholli (Kosovo/Switzerland/France, 1h40, original version with French subtitles, ages 13+, French release February 10)
Pristina, late 1990s. On the eve of the Kosovo war, 13-year-old Dua searches for her place among her family and in a changing body. Presented at Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival, this coming-of-age chronicle, inspired by the director’s own youth, breathes freedom.
Majestic Bastille, 4 boulevard Richard-Lenoir, Paris 11th
Friday, October 23, 2:15pm
Congo Boy by Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic/France/DRC/Italy, 1h30, original version with French subtitles, ages 13+, French release November 25)
Bangui. Robert, a 17-year-old Congolese refugee, dreams of music. With his parents in prison, he raises his four brothers and sisters alone, juggling odd jobs and the hope of winning a singing contest. This first fiction feature, partly autobiographical, stood out in the Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival.
MK2 Gambetta, 6 rue Belgrand, Paris 20th
Tuesday, October 27, 11am
An accessible festival
The Paris kids film festival offers more audio-described and subtitled screenings. For the first time, the La Bavarde app gives blind and visually impaired viewers audio description for around ten films, in every venue. School screenings take place beforehand, from October 12 to 16.
Paris kids film festival: practical information
Mon Premier Festival 2026
October 21 to 27, in 21 Paris cinemas.
Flat rate: €4.50 per screening, no proof required.
Tickets: presale online on cinema websites and at box offices from October 7.
Full programme online in early October: paris.fr/monpremierfestival
Wednesday, October 21 at 3pm at the Forum des images, with Barbara Schulz, director Julien Chheng and the festival’s two juries.
Preview of the animated feature Muyi, la légende du village des femmes by Julien Chheng (French release February 3, 2027, Gebeka), presented at the Annecy Festival.
with the Paris Mômes Audience Award, the Ciné+ Family children’s jury award and the TUMO youth jury award, in partnership with ESRA.
Followed by the preview of the animated feature New York, Miriam et moi by Rémy Schaepman and Léahn Vivier-Chapas (French release March 24, 2027, Little KMBO).
