Films in Theaters February 11–18, 2026: New Releases, and a Detour via the César Awards

Two Wednesdays shape this period, February 11 and February 18, 2026, before the winter school holidays. There is plenty to choose from. Here is a decision page, with a review seen at a preview screening, a selection of anticipated titles and, at the bottom, the complete release lists sorted by date.

Table of contents:
Quick holiday guide |
Review: Hurlevent |
Three anticipated films |
Releases on February 11 |
Releases on February 18 |
César Awards 2026 |
FAQ

Quick guide: what to watch before and during the winter holidays (depending on your mood)

If you’re looking for a family screening

• Les Enfants de la Résistance (11/02): the most obvious pick if you want a shared, story-driven screening.
• Goat – Rêver plus haut (11/02): energetic sports animation designed for younger audiences.
• Super Charlie (18/02): “holiday” animation, accessible, built around a simple narrative engine.
• La Famille Addams (re-release, 18/02): intergenerational fun, with very readable dark humour.

And if you want something more adult and substantial

• Coutures (18/02): intimate tension and power dynamics inside a highly codified world.
• Urchin (11/02): a social drama about survival and reintegration.
• Green Line (18/02): a long-form documentary confronting memory and competing narratives.
• Saveurs d’exil (18/02): an intimate documentary about transmission and family history.

Then if you want pace, momentum, a proper “big-screen” film

• Marty Supreme (18/02): a sports biopic driven by ambition and obsession.
• Aucun autre choix (11/02): a social thriller about downward mobility and moral tipping points.
• Cold Storage (18/02): a high-concept thriller built on danger and urgency.

Hurlevent: From Promise to Disappointment

Seen last night at a preview screening at UGC Ciné Cité Maillot, Hurlevent left me deeply disappointed. I wasn’t the only one.

I had high expectations, especially because I really enjoyed Emerald Fennell’s two previous films.
Promising Young Woman  showed remarkable command of dramatic construction, and Saltburn, though less fully realised, remained a singular proposal, marked by a violent and deliberately excessive universe.

In Hurlevent, we find that same heightened aesthetic, that desire to shock, something loud and brutal that characterises the filmmaker’s cinema.
Yet here, that signature is not enough. The film is visually sumptuous: the cinematography, sets and costumes are truly beautiful. But formal splendour cannot conceal the weakness of the script.

The story lacks dramatic progression. Scenes follow one another without truly building emotion. The many sex scenes convey passion, but the emotion isn’t there. Dialogue feels repetitive, as if the cast were trying to convince themselves.
At times, the film seems to be reaching for the breath of sweeping epics: you think of Game of Thrones for its spectacular crudity and taste for excess, and of Gone with the Wind for its displayed romantic ambition.
But these echoes remain superficial: more ornament than real narrative power.

Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein, Saltburn, Euphoria, and the series The Narrow Road, which I recommend) plays with intensity.
Margot Robbie, despite being a co-producer, is less at fault than constrained by writing that gives her little room to develop a legible emotional arc.
The imbalance between the characters weakens the film’s core. Emotion only truly surfaces at the very end, and even then it remains blurred, hard to grasp.

Ultimately, Hurlevent keeps the title of Emily Brontë’s novel, but struggles to capture its novelistic density and tragic force. A visually impressive promise, but a film that does not deliver on its promise.

February 2026 releases: three anticipated films

Les Enfants de la Résistance (11/02)

Adapted from a popular comic-book series, told from a child’s point of view, a coming-of-age story in the heart of the Occupation: this is the kind of “holiday film” that can bring several generations together.

• Adaptation of the comic-book series by Vincent Dugomier (script) and Benoît Ers (art).

• The series became a youth phenomenon (long-running series, spin-offs, wide circulation).

• Directed by: Christophe Barratier

Synopsis
1940, in a village near the demarcation line. François, Eusèbe and Lisa, three children, begin with tiny gestures, then join a clandestine resistance made of messages, sabotage and risk-taking, with friendship as their only strength against the Occupation.

Cast

• Artus (Marcel), Gérard Jugnot (Father Proslier), Pierre Deladonchamps (the mayor).

• And the three young central roles: Lucas Hector, Nina Filbrandt, Octave Gerbi.

Coutures (18/02)

Directed by Alice Winocour, expectations rest on a tense, controlled mise-en-scène. The fashion world is often used as a backdrop, more rarely as a battleground. If it delivers, the film could go beyond a milieu portrait and hit something sharper about power, bodies and domination.

World premiere at Toronto (TIFF), Special Presentations (7 September 2025).

The film then circulated on the festival circuit, notably in San Sebastián (and reportedly competed there, according to Cineuropa).

Synopsis
In Paris, during Fashion Week, an American woman arrives at the heart of the fashion system. Three trajectories intersect and, behind the veneer of luxury, power relations emerge, the body as territory, and image as social violence.

Cast

Angelina Jolie, Louis Garrel, Ella Rumpf, Garance Marillier.

Marty Supreme (18/02)

A sports biopic, a rise-and-obsession story: the structure is familiar, but it can become interesting if the film turns performance into character study.

• Directed by Josh Safdie, co-written with Ronald Bronstein.

• A film loosely inspired by table-tennis champion Marty Reisman (via the character Marty Mauser).

• The film benefited from heavy “awards season” exposure: the reference page lists 9 Oscar nominations.

Synopsis
New York, 1950s. A charismatic, unstable ping-pong prodigy moves between tournaments, the street and the underworld, driven by an ambition that devours everything. The film follows a rise, and the damage it causes.

Cast

• Timothée Chalamet (lead), Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Tyler Okonma (Tyler, The Creator), Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Kevin O’Leary.

Movie releases on Wednesday, 11 February 2026

• Hurlevent – directed by Emerald Fennell
• Les Enfants de la Résistance – directed by Christophe Barratier.
• Urchin – directed by Harris Dickinson :

  In London, Mike lives on the streets, moving from odd jobs to petty theft, until the day he ends up incarcerated.After his release, supported by social services, he tries to get his life back on track while battling his old demons.

• Aucun autre choix – directed by Park Chan-wook, adapted from the novel “Le Couperet” by Donald E. Westlake.
• Goat – Rêver plus haut – directed by Tyree Dillihay.
• LOL 2.0 – directed by Lisa Azuelos: the sequel, with Sophie Marceau of course.
• Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines – Claude Schmitz : this week’s crime-thriller discovery.
• Les Dimanches – directed by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa : Ainara, 17, a student at a Catholic high school, is about to sit her baccalaureate and choose her future academic path. To everyone’s surprise, this brilliant teenager tells her family she wants to take part in an integration period in a convent in order to embrace the life of a nun. The news catches everyone off guard.
• Les Immortelles – directed by Caroline Deruas Peano : 1992, in the south of France. Charlotte and Liza, two inseparable best friends, both 17, live for the thrill of music and the exhilarating promise of freedom. As the far-right party begins to gain ground in their hometown, they dream of moving to Paris to pursue their passion for music. Unfortunately, when an unexpected tragedy strikes, Charlotte finds herself alone on the brink of adulthood.
• It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley – directed by Amy Berg
• Send Help – directed by Sam Raimi
• Soulèvements – directed by Thomas Lacoste
• Les Voyages de Tereza – directed by Gabriel Mascaro : Tereza, 77, has spent her whole life in a small industrial town in the Amazon, until the day she receives an official government order to move into a housing colony for older people. The colony is an isolated area where seniors are expected to spend their final years.

Movie releases on Wednesday, 18 February 2026

• Cold Storage – directed by Jonny Campbell
• Coutures – directed by Alice Winocour : In Paris, amid the turmoil of Fashion Week, Maxine, an American director, learns news that will turn her life upside down. She then crosses paths with Ada, a young South Sudanese model who left her country, and Angèle, a French make-up artist longing for another life.
• Green Line – directed by Sylvie Ballyot
• Kiss of the Spider Woman – directed by Bill Condon
• La Femme cachée – directed by Bachir Bensaddek
• Le Mystérieux Regard du flamant rose – directed by Diego Céspedes
• Le Rêve américain – directed by Anthony Marciano
• Maigret et le mort amoureux – directed by Pascal Bonitzer : Commissioner Maigret is urgently called to the Quai d’Orsay. Monsieur Berthier-Lagès, a renowned former ambassador, has been murdered. Maigret discovers he had maintained a love correspondence for fifty years with the Princess of Vuynes, whose husband, in a strange coincidence, has just died. Confronting members of both families and the diplomat’s suspiciously silent housekeeper, Maigret will go from surprise to surprise.
• Marty Supreme – directed by Josh Safdie
• Saveurs d’exil – directed by Anne-Solenne Hatte
• Super Charlie – directed by Jon Holmberg

César Awards 2026: nominations and the 26 February ceremony

The 51st César Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, 26 February 2026 at the Olympia in Paris. The nominations were announced on 28 January. This is the ideal moment to catch up in theatres on the films nominated in the major categories before the ceremony.

The 2026 César nominations paint a sharply contrasted picture, dominated by Nouvelle Vague by Richard Linklater, well ahead with ten mentions and already positioned as the evening’s symbolic favourite.

Just behind, L’Attachement by Carine Tardieu, Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll and L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche by Stéphane Demoustier confirm the vitality of auteur cinema geared towards crime, intimate drama and political storytelling, each gathering an impressive bloc of nominations.

The strong presence of La Petite Dernière by Hafsia Herzi, well represented both in Best Film and Best Director, signals particular attention paid to women’s trajectories and stories of transmission, while the Best First Film category (from Arco to La Pampa, including Partir un jour) highlights a new generation of filmmakers clearly put in the spotlight by the Academy this year.

FAQ

Which film should I see with my family before and during the winter holidays?

Les Enfants de la Résistance is the simplest recommendation. For animation, Goat – Rêver plus haut (11/02) and Super Charlie (18/02) are the most obvious options.

Which film should I pick if I want something more adult?

Coutures and Green Line seem like the most substantial options, one on the fiction side, the other on the documentary side.

Is Hurlevent worth the trip?

If you’re going for the formal beauty (cinematography, costumes, sets), yes. If you expect a well-built tragic romance and clear emotional progression, the experience is likely to be disappointing.