CFF: The Ice Tower
15 118 mins
15 118 mins
France, Germany, 2025, 118 mins.
DIRECTOR: Lucile Hadžihalilović
WITH: Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, Lilas-Rose Gilberti, Marine Gesbert, Gaspar Noé, Dounia Sichov, Valentina Vezzoso
In a dazzling adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen, French director Lucile Hadžihalilović pays homage to cinema and its power to build magical worlds.
One night in the 1970s, runaway teenager Jeanne (Clara Pacini) takes refuge in a film studio, where she encounters a real star—played by the inimitable Marion Cotillard—who embodies the Snow Queen with icy perfection. The Ice Tower (2025) is visually magnificent: rich in texture and lavish in design. Cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg (The Taste of Things (2023)) brings a glacial stillness to the film’s extended takes, evoking the wintry beauty of a frozen dreamscape.
"Cinema with the allure of a fairytale" - Savina Petkova, The Film Stage
The Cambridge Film Festival is presented by the Cambridge Film Trust, a registered charity with a mission to foster film culture and education for the benefit of the public, in Cambridge, the Eastern region, and throughout the UK.