Mon Premier Festival 2025: Where Kids Learn to Dream Big and Watch Even Bigger

Why this festival matters

From October 22 to 28, 2025, Paris celebrates the 21st edition of Mon Premier Festival, the city’s flagship event for young audiences.
Created by Enfances au Cinéma and supported by the City of Paris, this family-friendly festival spreads across 18 theatres and 6 public libraries, bringing together laughter, curiosity and a true appetite for stories.

The 2025 theme, “Eyes Bigger Than the Screen”, is a delicious ode to imagination, sharing and sensory discovery, proof that film can feed both the mind and the heart.

The programme

Cinema as an open table

With more than 34,000 spectators last year, Mon Premier Festival has become one of France’s most inclusive cultural celebrations.
Tickets are set at a symbolic €4.50, making every screening accessible. The event also expands its accessibility programme, subtitled and audio-described films, wheelchair-friendly venues, hospital screenings through Rêve de Cinéma, and educational workshops city-wide.

Because cinema, here, isn’t just watched — it’s shared.

2025: Eyes Bigger Than the Screen

This year’s “fil rouge” explores the joy of food on film, how we eat, imagine, and dream together.
Among the thirty selected titles:

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart) and Wonka (Paul King)

• Linda Wants Chicken! (Sébastien Laudenbach, Chiara Malta)

• Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)

• Paddington in Peru (Dougal Wilson)

• Azur and Asmar (Michel Ocelot)

• Kiki’s Delivery Service and Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

Screenings often turn into hands-on experiences, creative tastings, quizzes and “cine-snack” sessions that blend learning and pleasure.

Alysson Paradis & Guillaume Gouix: patrons of emotion

Actors Alysson Paradis and Guillaume Gouix embody the spirit of this edition, intimate, tender, and committed.
Their personal favourites reflect both playfulness and depth:
Lady and the Tramp, Gremlins, and their shared treasure, Spirited Away.

Their presence reminds us that cinema grows through transmission, from one gaze to another.

Guest of honour: Aïssa Maïga

Actor, director, and activist Aïssa Maïga takes centre stage. Through six films, from Promis le ciel to Marcher sur l’eau, the festival celebrates her vision of a cinema rooted in diversity, solidarity and women’s voices.

She lends her voice to Aya of Yopougon and The Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess, appears in Wardi and Neneh Superstar, and continues to link art with activism.

Screenings, premieres and discoveries

More than 350 screenings, including 23 world premieres, will illuminate Paris throughout the week.

Opening night at Forum des Images features Celeste’s Odyssey by Kid Koala, a futuristic musical tale attended by the festival patrons.
The closing gala presents The Angels’ Grand Drawing: The Most Beautiful Stories of Quentin Blake, followed by the Paris Mômes Audience Award, the Ciné+ Family Kids Jury Prize, and the TUMO Youth Award.

Three vibrant sections

Eyes Bigger Than the Screen

Cinema and food an exploration of taste, creation, and appetite (Little Gourmets, Potato, The Owl in the Kitchen).

Into Nature

An ecological and poetic line-up (The Red Turtle, WALL-E, Into the Woods).

Cult Films

Family classics to rediscover ,Jumanji, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, Lady and the Tramp.

Encounters and cine-concerts

Directors and actors such as Michel Ocelot, Isabelle Carré, Ugo Bienvenu, Marguerite Abouet, and Benjamin Renner will meet young audiences to discuss the magic of storytelling.

Live events include:

• The Princess and the Nightingale (piano: Cyrille Aufaure)

• Cream Pie Battle, musical tribute to Chaplin & Laurel & Hardy

• Bird Choirs, an interactive sound experience

Moments that turn the screen into a stage, and the image into music.

Workshops, play, imagination

More than a festival, it’s a creative lab for kids. Workshops include:

🎨 Poster creation after Potato
🐻 Bear puppets after Greedy Bears at the North Pole
🧪 “Apprentice Druid” after Asterix
🤖 Robot building with WALL-E (Zero Waste France)
🎬 Film quizzes and kids’ discos after screenings

Each film becomes an experience to live, not just to watch.

Green and inclusive by design

The festival follows an eco-responsibility charter: cutting emissions, recycling materials, partnering locally, and raising awareness about sustainable consumption.

Inclusion remains central: subtitled and audio-described sessions, 10 accessible venues, and screenings for hospitalised children.

Learning cinema at school

With École et Cinéma and Mon 1er Cinéma, over 3,000 Paris classes take part in 2025-2026.
Teachers receive training, preview sessions and pedagogical tools via the Nanouk platform.
Workshops for all primary levels are led by professionals in image education.

Across the city

From Forum des Images to Cinémathèque française, via the Louxor, Studio des Ursulines, and Majestic Bastille, the festival spreads across 18 cinemas and 6 libraries, including La Canopée-La Fontaine, François-Villon, and Virginia Woolf.

The Festival Passport

A playful treasure hunt across Paris: scan QR codes, collect badges, unlock surprises.
Prizes include Benshi subscriptions, Cinémathèque invitations, and tickets to Parc Astérix.

Live music and magic

Music runs through the festival’s veins — from Little Gourmets played by students of the Paris Conservatory, to Cream Pie Battle scored by Ignacio Plaza Ponce, to Stars in Their Eyes, a shadow-theatre performance.

Awards & Juries

🏆 Paris Mômes Audience Award
🎬 Ciné+ Family Kids Jury Prize (ages 8–10)
🎥 TUMO Paris Youth Prize (ages 12–18, with filmmaker Benjamin Hameury)

The winners will be celebrated at Cinéma des Cinéastes — a joyful finale for this week of discoveries.

A world of cinema

Films hail from Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America, revealing the global pulse of youth storytelling.
This edition pays tribute to Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, with a retrospective at the Maison de la Culture du Japon.

Why Movie in the Air supports it

Because we believe in cinema as a form of education, empathy and joy.
Supporting Mon Premier Festival means nurturing a generation of curious, open-minded viewers, and defending an inventive, humanist cinema.

Practical information

📅 October 22–28, 2025
🏫 School sessions: October 13–17
💶 Flat rate: €4.50
🎟️ Tickets: paris.fr/monpremierfestival
♿ Audio description / subtitled / PMR access

Join the community

What film would you show to your younger self?
Share your favourite discovery with #monpremierfestival2025 and tag @movieintheair 💫