The raved about, hilariously funny film Nothing to Declare about customs officials on the French-Belgian border is part of a stellar line up, alongside thought-provoking and moving offerings such as Cafe De Flore.

The festival will open on March 14 with Declaration of War, which received a 15-minute standing ovation at Cannes.

It follows the emotional journey of a couple who discover their young child has a brain tumour.

In contrast, the festival will end with a French classic, The Last Metro, which director of the Alliance Francaise Philippe Milloux described as ''one of the most beautiful films of the 1980s''.

It features Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu, as a theatre manager and actor in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942.

This year's festival will show more than 40 films across three weeks, with screenings at a number of venues including Greater Union Cinema in Manuka, Ark Cinema and NFSA at Acton.

The festival is being presented in association with the French embassy in Australia. Mr Milloux said more than 7500 people attended the film festival in Canberra last year and he expected an even bigger crowd this time. The festival will also include the touchingly funny And If We All Lived Together about nursing home residents who lose some of their memories, encounter the nursing home's ghost and then rebel and decide to all live together.

With classic French humour, Mr Milloux said he wanted the festival to showcase the spectrum of Gallic experience.

''You get stories about love, hate, passion,'' he said.

''And the way French people are never satisfied - and always up to something.''