After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, The Marching Band was the surprise hit of the French box office last fall. Since then, it has won audience awards at almost every festival it has played at around the world and garnered seven César nominations. No wonder, because it is the complete package: it's got laughs, heartache, love, music, and it ponders the nature vs. nurture question.

When Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe, My Lover, My Donkey and I - Virtual MiniFest 2020), an internationally renowned conductor and composer, learns that he has leukemia, he also finds out that he was adopted. Only a bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor can save him, so Thibaut sets out to the north of France to meet the estranged younger brother he never knew he had and ask for his help.

At first it seems like the upper class and snobbish Thibaut has nothing in common with his straightforward, working-class brother, Jimmy (Pierre Lottin, The Night of the Twelfth - SFFF 2023). That is, until they discover their shared love of music. When he realizes that Jimmy plays the trombone in his labor union's marching band and senses his brother's exceptional talent, Thibaut tries to remedy the injustice of fate while Jimmy begins to dream of a different life…

The Marching Band grabs you in the first five minutes and won't let go, up to its poignant and superb finale. It is a truly magnificent film full of humanity that won't leave a dry eye in the house, and will stay with you long after watching.