From October 12 through October 20, 2024, the Lumière Festival will return for its 16th edition, featuring a packed schedule of film discoveries, special guest appearances, and a shared passion for cinema. Here’s everything that awaits you at the event!
A must-attend event for all French film lovers, this year’s Lumière Festival will be held from October 12 to October 20, 2024, in Lyon. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the organizers have pulled out all the stops with an exceptionally enticing lineup. The festival will feature distinguished guests, exciting retrospectives, premieres of anticipated films, and numerous other not-to-be-missed events. Here are the highlights of these nine days dedicated to celebrating both classic and contemporary cinema!
Find the full schedule for the Lumière Festival here.
2024 Lumière Award: Isabelle Huppert
Recently seen in La Prisonnière de Bordeaux and Les Gens d’à côté, actress Isabelle Huppert is a towering figure in both French and international cinema. Whether under the direction of Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Michael Cimino, or Hong Sang-soo, she consistently excels across a broad range of roles and never shies away from a new challenge.
With a nomination for an Oscar, a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival, two César Awards for Best Actress, and many more accolades, this year she will receive the prestigious Lumière Award, annually given to honor a career’s worth of achievements.
Audiences will have the opportunity to revisit some of her iconic films, including La Dentellière, La Porte du paradis, Passion, La Cérémonie, and La Pianiste among others.
The Retrospectives
As is tradition, the Lumière Festival also pays tribute to cinema through retrospectives that honor some of the greats of the film world.
For the festival’s 15th anniversary, filmmaker Costa-Gavras will be the guest of honor at the opening ceremony. The president of the French Cinémathèque will be celebrated for his politically charged films that have influenced generations of viewers. Festivalgoers can look forward to (re)discovering Z and L’Aveu, as well as his upcoming film Le Dernier souffle in a premiere screening. His political cinema will also be featured in the series Le Siècle de Costa-Gavras, with three episodes presented to the public.
This year, as part of the “Permanent History of Women Filmmakers” series, Mexican director Matilde Landeta will be spotlighted with screenings of her films Lola Casanova, La negra Angustias, and Trotacalles. This exceptional retrospective will allow viewers to experience these very rare and specially restored films in the best possible conditions!
The festival will also highlight the work of director Fred Zinnemann, a six-time Oscar winner known for the iconic Western High Noon and the drama From Here to Eternity, as well as famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune (Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai).
Festival Guests
Numerous acclaimed directors, actors, and actresses will meet the public during these nine days of festivities: Alexandre Aja, Alfonso Cuarón, Justine Triet, Benicio del Toro, Vanessa Paradis, Xavier Dolan, Jacques Audiard, Nicolas Winding Refn, Claude Lelouch, Monica Bellucci… Festivalgoers will be spoilt for choice!
The festival will also prominently feature socially engaged cinema with contributions from Romain Goupil, Marin Karmitz, Costa-Gavras, and Edwy Plenel.
Numerous Premieres
The Lumière Festival will offer 420 screenings, including several feature films presented as premieres, with the filmmakers in attendance. Here are some of the works you can see before anyone else:
- The Substance by Coralie Fargeat
- Norah by Tawfik Alzaidi
- With a Bang by Emmanuel Courcol
- The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius
- Spectators! by Arnaud Desplechin
- Three Friends by Emmanuel Mouret
- Three Kilometers to the End of the World by Emanuel Pârvu
And Many More Events!
Among the major highlights of this 16th edition, we will also feature a “Journey to the End of Horror” night hosted by Alexandre Aja himself on Saturday, October 19 at the Halle Tony Garnier, a treat for genre enthusiasts. That same day, at 10:30 AM, the director will also hold a master class event.
Other must-attend events include a tribute to Charlie Chaplin and a special program for children with a giant screening of the animated film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix at the Halle Tony Garnier. Make sure to register early for the screenings that interest you!
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A passionate journalist, Iris Lennox covers social and cultural news across the U.S.