Memory of a Daughter, the film adaptation of Annie Ernaux's autobiographical work by Judith Godrèche, hits cinemas in France on September 30, 2026. Shown in Official Selection, in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, this 1h57 drama is distributed by Jour2Fête.
The film opens with Annie Ernaux, invited to sign her latest work in Rouen, the city of her childhood. A sudden bout of vertigo on the way there plunges her back to the summer of 1958 and to her first relationship with a man, an experience whose consequences would permanently shape how she relates to her body, to desire, and to her own history.
Tess Barthélemy portrays Annie in her youth, while Valérie Dréville takes on the writer as an adult. The cast also features Maïwène Barthélemy, Victor Bonnel, Ariane Labed and Anja Verderosa.
Published in 2016, A Daughter's Memoir revisits an episode Annie Ernaux lived through at age 18. The author examines how shame, memory, and the social gaze gradually reshape the memory of that first experience. Judith Godrèche wrote the screenplay and directed this cinematic adaptation.
The selection for Un Certain Regard comes two years after Judith Godrèche’s Cannes premiere of her short Moi aussi. Mémoire de fille is among the cinema releases for September 2026.
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