For a few nights this month, Boise State students are stepping into stories told in a language many of them have never studied — experiencing films in a way that goes beyond simply watching them.
The 2026 Boise French Film Festival is bringing international cinema to campus through a student-driven effort blending language learning, cultural exchange and hands-on experience.
Hosted by the university’s French program and club, the festival features a curated lineup of films from across the French-speaking world, screened over multiple days in on-campus venues.
What is now a full scale campus-event began as just a classroom project. Brittney Gehrig, a French professor at Boise State, created French 400 early 2024, an experiential learning course designed to move students beyond traditional instruction into real-world application of the language.
“I wanted to do a project where they could plan something, implement something and communicate with people in the community in French,” Gehrig said.
From designing promotional materials and writing press releases to managing social media and coordinating screenings, students in French 400 and members of the French Club handle much of the festival’s execution.
“These students get to be out in the community working with different stakeholders,” Gehrig said. “They’re building skills they can actually use in a future job.”
French Club president Elián Tovar said the festival is meant to broaden people’s understanding of the language. Rather than focusing on a single national identity, the selection of films emphasizes how widely French is spoken and how differently it’s lived across regions and communities.
“The goal is to show that French is not just [in] France,” he said. “It’s a global language connected to so many different cultures.”
Tovar emphasized that range is what makes the experience even more meaningful for the audience.
“Every movie has a message,” he said. “People take something different from it depending on how they see it.”
Screenings are open to both students and the public, and all of the films include English subtitles to make them accessible to those with no background in French.
Sadie Aldana, who helps with outreach for the festival, said the goal is to make the event feel welcoming rather than exclusive.
“I’ve seen younger people, older people, students, people from the community,” Aldana said. “It’s been so cool to see everyone come together for it.”
Beyond the screenings themselves, the festival is structured around conversation. After each film, audiences are encouraged to stay and discuss what they saw, making the event more interactive than a typical movie screening.
“It’s not just watching a film,” Tovar said. “It’s about sharing opinions and understanding different perspectives.”
That interactive element teaches audiences that scenes can carry multiple meanings depending on perspective, language and lived experience.
For Gehrig, that’s where the festival’s value really shines through. Film becomes a way to connect language learning with lived culture, giving students and audiences access to stories they might not otherwise encounter.
“When you watch a story in the language you’re studying, you’re not just hearing words,” she said. “You’re seeing how people live, how they interact, what matters to them.”
She traces her own connection to French back to cinema as well, recalling how French films first pulled her into the language during college. Watching those films, she said, made the world feel larger and more accessible at the same time.
“It’s like traveling without leaving your campus,” she said.
