On Saturday, October 15, Lyon moviegoers welcomed a host of actors and film professionals for the opening of the 14th edition of the Lumière Festival, which will award its annual prize to the whimsical American director Tim Burton.
“Today it’s the biggest movie theater in the world. It would be nothing without all of you, without this audience who likes to watch on very large screens”launched Thierry Frémaux, the general manager of the festival, in front of nearly 5,000 spectators gathered in the Halle Tony Garnier for the launch ceremony.
The evening began with a tribute to Jean-Luc Godard, who died in September at the age of 91, with the broadcast of an extract from Contempt with Michel Piccoli (1963) on a huge central screen.
The eclectic program of the festival promises more than 150 films over nine days, with among the guests the Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro who comes to present in preview his highly anticipated Pinocchio.
Saturday evening, the public vigorously applauded the Franco-Greek director Costa-Gravas, the director Etienne Chatiliez, the actresses Sabine Azéma, Marina Foïs, Leila Bekhti, Nicole Garcia and the actors Hippolyte Girardot, Gérard Jugnot. Very warm welcome too, for the filmmaker and former South Korean culture minister Lee Chang-dong, author of Poetry (2010) and Burning (2018).
The latter will host a master class open to the public, as will American filmmakers James Gray and Tim Burton, Italian Monica Bellucci, Frenchmen Claude Lelouch, Marlène Jobert and Nicole Garcia.
“We are all here to continue to love cinema (…) Make way for the cinema”, concluded Thierry Frémaux, before inviting the audience to discover The Innocent, the latest film by Louis Garrel. Released on the screens on Wednesday and shot in Lyon, this comedy-polar performed in particular by Noémie Merlant and Roschdy Zem, caused a sensation during the last Cannes festival.
Next Friday, the Lumière Prize 2022, the high point of the festival, will be awarded to Tim Burton, 63, for all of his work. Follower of the fantastic and influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, this rock star of the 7th art has delivered several block busters in 35 years of career, from Batman at Dumbo Passing by BettleJuice, Big Fish, Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland or Mars Attacks.
Among the films of the retrospective devoted to the emblematic Californian, Edward Scissorhandsfilmed in 1991 with his favorite actor Johnny Depp, will be screened at the closing.
In 2021, the festival welcomed nearly 145,000 moviegoers and crowned the work of New Zealand director Jane Campion.