Limestone College is sponsoring The Tournees Festival, a five-night French language film series that will feature five award-winning international films, beginning today and continuing through Thursday, Nov. 2, in the Stephenson Banquet Room on the college campus. All films begin at 7 p.m. and admission is free.

The opening film today will be "Comme Une Image" (Look at Me), a humorous portrait of the Parisian social world that centers around Lolita, an aspiring singer, and her relationship with her celebrity father. The film is rated PG-13 for brief language and one sexual innuendo.

Tuesday evening, Oct. 24, the festival will present "L'Enfant" (The Child), a Belgian film about a father's quest to get a baby back after selling him on the black market. This profound story was the winner of the prestigious Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. It is rated R for language and thematic situations.

On Monday, Oct. 30, "Le Grand Voyage" (Grand Voyage) will be shown. Director Ismael Ferroukhi won the Award for First Feature Film at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 for his story of a father and son's road trip from France to Mecca. The Moroccan film is one of five to ever be shot on location during the Haaj (annual pilgrimage) to Mecca. The film is for general audiences.

"Les Petits Fils" (Grandsons) will be shown on Wednesday, Nov. 1. The winner of the Horizons Award at the 2004 Venice International Film Festival, "Les Petits Fils" is about the relationship between Guillaume and his eccentric grandmother Regine after the death of Guillaume's mother (Regine's daughter). The French film is also for general audiences.

The festival's finale on Nov. 2 will be "Moolaade" (Sanctuary), which takes on the explosive issue of female circumcision and a brave woman who protects four young girls from it in a small Senegal village. "Moolaade" is the second of a trilogy of films by director Ousmane Seinbene about heroism in daily life and the struggle of people overlooked by their government and the rest of the world. It is rated PG-13 for thematic situations.

All five films have French or other language audio with English subtitles and were released between 2004 and 2005. Most have seen only limited release in U.S. theatres and are not widely available on video.

The Tournees Festival was conceived to encourage schools to begin their own self-sustaining French film festivals. Since its inception, the program has partnered with hundreds of universities and made it possible for more than 250,000 students to discover French-language films. The Tournees Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC).