Sacramento French Film Festival — 25th Season
June 26–28, 2026 · Tower Theatre, Sacramento
Since 2002
Every summer since 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival takes you on a trip to France without leaving town...
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Our Mission
The Festival is dedicated to providing the Sacramento community with unique, inspiring, festive, and affordable events that bring people together in celebration of French culture. It is committed to fostering friendly relations between American and French people through the universal language of film and the arts. It encourages audience participation through thought-provoking discussions between Festival guests and attendees.
Founded in 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival now presents two annual events as well as special screenings under the umbrella of the Sacramento French Cultural Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in 2010.
After a sold-out first edition at the Tower Theatre in July 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival moved downtown to the Crest Theatre, its home until 2019.
In 2008, we introduced a second annual event dedicated to short films, the Winter Shorts Fest. Originally hosted by the Poetry Center, it quickly grew to bigger locations, first Verge Center for the Arts (2011–2013), then the Crest Theatre (2014–2019) and Tower Theatre (2020–today).
We presented a third event, a one-day fall festival called the MiniFest, at the Esquire IMAX Theatre from 2014 to 2020.
In 2020, confronted with the COVID pandemic, the SFFF immediately shifted to a dedicated online streaming platform with no interruption in programming. From 2020 to 2023, we kept our community connected and engaged through virtual festivals, special screenings, and transatlantic Zoom discussions with French filmmakers. After two virtual and then two hybrid years in multiple venues, 2024 was our first year fully back in-person, at the Tower Theatre.
Over the years, the SFFF has partnered with local arts organizations and film festivals, and presented numerous special screenings — notably a silent French film with live music accompaniment by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra in 2012, a documentary commemorating the victims of the Paris terrorist attack in 2015, and French experimental shorts during the ephemeral installation Art Street in 2017.
Find all our past events here
Audience Award Winners
The People Who Make It Happen
Cécile Mouette Downs
Executive and Artistic Director · Co-founder
Cécile Mouette Downs, a native of France, is co-founder of the Sacramento French Film Festival. Before moving to Sacramento in 2001, Cécile worked for 3 years at the Film Department of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York City. There she promoted French films and television programs in the United States, and helped theaters, museums, universities and various festivals feature recent and classic French films. She organized receptions, film screenings, press lunches and other events and was a press contact for the French films selected at New York's French Film Festival, Rendez Vous with French Cinema, and at the New York Film Festival. She also curated experimental video shows at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan. From 1992 to 1998, Cécile worked as a Press Officer for the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (the French FCC) in Paris. She holds a Master of Arts in History from the University Paris X. In 2010, Cécile received the Arts Executive of the Year Award from the Sacramento Arts & Business Council. In 2013, she was appointed to the prestigious order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
cecile(at)sacramentofrenchfilmfestival.org
John Downs.
Officer · Technical Director
John, a native Californian, moved to Sacramento in 2000. He is an aquatic and wetland ecologist for the State of California and a member of the American Whitewater Association. An amateur musician (ukulele, guitar and most recently trumpet), he is an avid swimmer and cyclist and enjoys snowboarding, kayaking, kinetic sculpture, France, and French cinema. One college film appreciation class taught him that good films inspire, make you feel, emote, and connect... He is a student of the human condition and enjoys the realism and the absurd that the French bring to the screen. His candid eye and opinion are a great help when it comes to constructing a balanced and accessible program! John is also our talented short film projectionist.
john(at)sacramentofrenchfilmfestival.org
Jane Berner
Treasurer · Managing Director
Jane has been a volunteer with the Sacramento French Film Festival since its first edition. After growing up in Sacramento, Jane left for college in Chicago and, while pursuing a degree in economics, also explored her love of film and the arts. She volunteered for the University of Chicago's DOC Films student-run cinema and worked for six years as a feature film programmer for the Chicago International Film Festival. She now uses that experience to advise the SFFF on film selection and also handles administrative and financial duties. While she still has a passion for film, she has pursued a professional career in urban planning. She received her master's degree from UCLA and has worked as a transportation planner in both the public and private sector.
jane(at)sacramentofrenchfilmfestival.org