THIS IS NOT A FRENCH FILM

Tom Adjibi I 2026 BE FR I 80’ I comedy I French

Original Title: Ceci n’est pas un Film Français

"slyly subversive” - Business Doc Europe

“Playful”, entertaining, sharp” - Cineuropa

“a film that kept surprising us from beginning to end” - CPH:DOX Jury statement

Awards

Special Jury mention @ CPH:DOX

Synopsis

Tom, a goofy yet driven actor, starts filming a video journal to share his experience as a racialised performer in Belgium. Armed with good intentions yet a clumsy approach, he hires a slightly confused video crew, and sets out to interview fellow non-white actors. 

While the interviews bring limited results, Tom gathers the same group  in the south of France, hoping to bring the film further by writing the script together. But even in this beautiful surroundings, tensions persist as their ambitions diverge, putting at stake the fragile unity Tom is trying to shape. 

This is not a French Film is a smart, crowd-pleasing meta-comedy that tackles the lack of representation of non-white Europeans in cinema. Framed as a video journal, the film follows Tom’s clumsy yet determined attempt to create a fiction film written by and starring exclusively non-white actors. 

Using wit, irony, and moments of awkward humour, his debut addresses a deeply relevant subject without ever becoming didactic. The result is both politically resonant and genuinely funny — a rare balance that delivers the pleasure of a smart, well-crafted comedy.

Credits

Directed by Tom Adjibi

Produced by Joël Curtz, Walid Bekhti for CVB (Belgium)

Co-produced by Clothilde Bunod, La Société du Sensible (France); 

With the support of the Film and Audiovisual Centre of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter via Take Five Invest, the CNC Innovation Fund, the CNC “Images of Diversity” Fund – National Agency for Territorial Cohesion, the CNC Audiovisual Support Fund, the Région SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in partnership with the CNC, PROCIREP – Société des producteurs – ANGOA, HOTENSLIG asbl

Festivals

CPH:DOX (DK), Crossing Europe (AT), Biografilm (IT), Brussels IFF (BE)