Woody Allen’s passion for Paris and French films prompted him to make the 50th film of his more than six-decade-long career in French, the American director-actor revealed at the Venice Film Festival on Monday.

The 87-year-old filmmaker attended the 80th edition of the prestigious film festival with his first French-language film Coup de Chance (Stroke of Luck), a comedy thriller which was premiered out of competition on Monday night.

“I love #Paris so much and for my 50th film I wanted to do it in French, I wanted to join the group of those French filmmakers that I love so much. I had a wonderful time,” explained Allen at the post-screening press conference at the festival.

“When I was younger the films that were most impressive to me were the European ones, especially from Italian, French and Swedish cinema. I wanted to make films like them. I tried to do that my whole life,” he said.

After receiving a warm welcome from journalists and critics at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, Allen said he would love to make another movie based on a story set in New York if he could find a backer willing to accept his terms. “If some foolish person agrees to that, then I will make the film in New York,” he said.Allen, who was last in Venice in 2007 with Cassandra’s Dream featuring Colin Farrel and Ewen McGregor, has fallen out of favour in the US after press coverage of the allegations of sexual abuse levelled against the veteran director by his daughter Dylan Farrow intensified in the wake of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood. The filmmaker, however, denied the charges.