#FIRSTLOOK: RICHARD LINKLATER’S “NOUVELLE VAGUE” CANADIAN RELEASE DATE

tiff50 selection NOUVELLE VAGUE from Richard Linklater will debut across Canada October 31, 2025. We get a new Trailer today.

SELECTED OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Cannes Film Festival 2025
Toronto International Film Festival 2025
Atlantic International Film Festival 2025
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival 2025
Vancouver International Film Festival 2025
New York Film Festival 2025
Telluride Film Festival 2025
Deauville American Film Festival 2025
Munich Film Festival 2025
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2025

Synopsis:
NOUVELLE VAGUE is Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater’s love letter to the revolutionary magic of the French New Wave, reimagining the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, which ultimately cemented Godard as a pioneer of global cinema. As critic-turned-director Godard makes and breaks the rules, a mix of fresh faces and daring talents — including Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg, Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Guillaume Marbeck as Godard himself — bring his spontaneous, electric film to life. Capturing the youthful dynamism and creative chaos at the heart of one of the world’s most beloved and influential movies, Nouvelle Vague transports us to the streets of 1959 Paris for an ode to the power of cinema to transform our lives.

Principal Cast:
Guillaume Marbeck (feature film debut) as Jean-Luc Godard
Zoey Deutch (The Politician, The Threesome, Set It Up) as Jean Seberg
Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo
Adrien Rouyard as François Truffaut
Antoine Besson as Claude Chabrol
Jodie Ruth-Forest as Suzanne Schiffman
Screenplay: Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr., Michèle Halberstadt, Laetitia Masson

Country: France
Runtime: 106 minutes
Language: French (with English subtitles)

Executive Producers: Emmanuel Montamat, John Sloss
Producers: Laurent Pétin, Michèle Pétin
Canadian Distributor: Photon Films
U.S. Distributor: Netflix

ABOUT PHOTON FILMS AND MEDIA
Launched in 2010, Photon Films and Media (photonfilms.ca), formerly Pacific Northwest Pictures, is a leading Canadian entertainment company specializing in the development, financing, production and distribution of feature films for the domestic and international marketplace. With an emphasis on high quality films from leading filmmakers in diverse genres, Photon Films brings those films to consumers with innovative forms of marketing and distribution across all distribution platforms.

Recent theatrical releases include the SXSW Grand Jury and Audience Award Winner Bob Trevino Likes It from writer/director Tracie Laymon and starring Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo, Tribeca Audience Award Winner Bad Shabbos with Kyra Sedgwick, David Paymer and Method Man, and the critically acclaimed documentary One to One: John & Yoko from directors Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards. Upcoming films include Youngblood from director Hubert Davis and starring Blair Underwood and Ashton James, and Little Lorraine from director Andy Hines and starring Stephen Amell, Sean Astin, J Balvin, Matt Walsh, Rhys Darby and Stephen McHattie.

#TIFF25: “NOUVELLE VAGUE“ REVIEW

By David Baldwin

Today, we know (or at least know of) Jean-Luc Godard as one of the most famous and influential directors of all time. But before he became the legend, Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) was just a film critic writing for the prolific Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s. He is jealous of his colleagues for having made films, so he sets out to make his own. Despite never having made a feature-length film, Godard wants to do things his way and carve his own path – much to the chagrin of the more seasoned cast and crew.

NOUVELLE VAGUE (or New Wave) chronicles the lead up and making of the revolutionary French picture Breathless to a meticulously and often ridiculously detailed degree. It captures Godard’s eccentricities and the minutiae that drove his process and kickstarted the film’s namesake.

American Director Richard Linklater has very much composed a love letter to Godard here, and has a bad habit of overindulging in details and specificities. Obsessive film nerds will be in heaven watching him recreate scenes and situations, but more casual viewers (or those who know very little of the French New Wave) will be tormented by the languished pacing and Linklater’s decision to truncate very little of what happened on and off the “set”. That said, I do love that he maintained the black and white aesthetic that perfectly matches and compliments Godard’s original film. 

And while the cast is uniformly solid, standouts include Marbeck who is terrific as Godard, and Aubry Dullin who does very well as leading man Jean-Paul Belmondo. They are both overshadowed however by Zoey Deutch who positively slays as Jean Seberg (and speaks French rather exquisitely). 

NOUVELLE VAGUE screens at TIFF ’25:

Tues. Sept 9 at 6:30 PM at VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre

Wed. Sept 10 at 9:00 PM at TIFF Lightbox

Sun. Sept 14 at 10:00 AM at TIFF Lightbox