Léa Drucker’s A Woman’s Life to open French Film Festival London with UK premiere

Léa Drucker will open this year’s French Film Festival London with A Woman’s Life, a new drama from Anaïs in Love director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet that arrives at Ciné Lumière for its UK premiere.

Drucker plays Gabrielle, a 55-year-old facial reconstruction surgeon whose life is organised around the demands of her work. At home, she is also balancing marriage, step-parenting and caring for her ageing mother – until a novelist arrives at the hospital to observe her for research and begins to unsettle that carefully controlled routine.

Mélanie Thierry plays the writer, Frida, with Marie-Christine Barrault and Charles Berling also among the cast. The film premiered in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and marks Bourgeois-Tacquet’s second feature following Anaïs in Love.

The UK premiere on 18^th November will be followed by a live Q&A with Drucker and Bourgeois-Tacquet, giving audiences the chance to hear more about the film and its central portrait of a woman whose professional certainty is challenged by a more personal kind of upheaval.

The screening launches 12 days of French cinema at the newly refurbished Ciné Lumière, with the wider festival programme set to include new French films and co-productions, documentaries, animation, restored classics and further filmmaker appearances.

For audiences looking for an early highlight, the opening night combines a recent Cannes title with one of contemporary French cinema’s most recognisable performers – and the added chance to hear directly from both its star and director.

The editorial unit

French Film Festival London takes place at Ciné Lumière from 18^th to 29^th November 2026. A Woman’s Life opens the festival on 18th November, followed by a Q&A with Léa Drucker and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet.