To say that the Lumière Festival has found a recipe that works would be an understatement. The figures speak for themselves: 127,000 viewers in 2023 attending screenings of 180 films and 37,000 festivalgoers for the various festival events (conferences, professional meetings, etc.). It’s a result made greater still by the exceptional popular fervour surrounding the biggest event in the world dedicated to heritage film, steered by Thierry Frémaux. This enthusiasm will see names from the modern-day film world rushing to Lyon to present great works from the past and will feature once again at the festival’s 16th edition, unspooling between 12 and 20 October.

Isabelle Huppert is set to top the bill, forming the focus of a retrospective of 13 films, receiving the Lumière Award, delivering a masterclass on 18 October, and directing (much like her illustrious predecessors who also triumphed in this category) a remake of Leaving the Factory (the first film screened at Le Cinématographe).

The other retrospectives gracing the agenda will shine a light on Costa-Gavras (by way of six films, including his most recent, Last Breath [+leggi anche:
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Standing tall on the particularly long list of guests who’ll be presenting a variety of films and delivering masterclasses are Canada’s Xavier Dolan, American-Spanish actor Benicio Del Toro, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, his Spanish colleague Icíar Bollaín, the mythical and mystical French-Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky (around whom a night of screenings will revolve, including those of El topo, The Holy Mountain and Santa sangre) and French actress Vanessa Paradis. For her part, Oscar-winner Justine Triet will remind us of her love of film, while Alexandre Aja will present the nocturnal Journey to the Edge of Horror" line-up.

Among the many other attractions on the agenda, Vincent Lindon (recently crowned Best Actor in Venice) is due to introduce Pépé le Moko by Julien Duvivier (1937) and will be the focus of a documentary in the showcase (Vincent Lindon, coeur sanglant by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai). Likewise in on the Lyonnaise action are an array of filmmakers set to present new restored versions of their films, namely France’s Jacques Audiard, his compatriot Jean Becker, Brazil’s Fernando Meirelles and Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn. That’s without forgetting Marin Karmitz, Mexico’s Alfonso Cuarón with his series Disclaimer [+leggi anche:
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Boasting "Sublime moments from silent cinema", "Great black and white classics", "Cult Films", "Documentaries about cinema", "The Lumière Festival for children", the most wonderful restorations of the year as labelled by Lumière Classics, "Treasures and curiosities", and a cine-concert of Carl T. Dreyer’s Vampyr, etc., the festival agenda will be bursting with heritage film gems, buoyed by premieres (in the presence of their teams) of films previously discovered in Cannes (The Most Precious of Cargoes [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michel Hazanavicius
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intervista: Emmanuel Courcol
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intervista: Coralie Fargeat
scheda film] by Coralie Fargeat, Filmlovers! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Arnaud Desplechin, Three Kilometres to the End of the World [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emanuel Pârvu
scheda film] by Romania’s Emanuel Pârvu and Norah by Saudi Arabian director Tawfik Alzaidi) and in Venice (Three Friends [+leggi anche:
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Worth a final mention in the line-up, the 12th edition of the International Classic Film Market (directed by Juliette Rajon) - the only market in the world dedicated to heritage films - is scheduled to run between 15 and 18 October, with a programme notably including "The Re>Birth section" showcasing films slated for restoration, a Lithuania focus, round tables (among others, "how to reinforce European support for heritage film"), case studies, showcases, a get-together for distributors and cinema operators, and an interview with Anna Marsh (CEO of StudioCanal).