With 180,000 festivalgoers in 2024 compared with 80,000 at its launch in 2009, the Lumière Film Festival has resoundingly established itself as the leading international event focused on heritage cinema. Its impressive popular success rests on a deft blend of today’s stars and yesterday’s gems devised by Thierry Frémaux and his team, which will once again set Lyon ablaze for this 17th edition, running from 11-19 October.

Headlining this year is US filmmaker Michael Mann, who will be honoured with a 13-film retrospective (plus one episode of a series), receive the Lumière Award and give a master class on 17 October.

Other retrospectives will shine a light on his fellow countryman Martin Ritt, French actor Louis Jouvet, East German director Konrad Wolf, his Japanese counterpart Seijun Suzuki and Norwegian filmmaker Anja Breien (as part of the ongoing Women Filmmakers in History strand).

Among the guests presenting multiple films and delivering master classes are Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, John Woo, Dominique Blanc, Shu Qi, István Szabó, Sweden’s Tarik Saleh (with his Cairo trilogy, the latest instalment of which is Eagles of the Republic [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tarik Saleh
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intervista: Thierry Klifa
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intervista: Christian Carion
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A raft of other previews is also on the menu, with talent in attendance: Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro, The Stranger [+leggi anche:
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intervista: François Ozon
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intervista: Arnaud Desplechin
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intervista: Dominik Moll
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intervista: Hlynur Pálmason
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Milos Forman will open the festival. The programme’s treasure trove includes the year’s finest restorations carrying the Lumière Classics label, “Sublime Silent Moments”, “Great Films for the Big Screen”, “Lumière Festival for Children”, a spotlight on Swedish cinema embodied by Victor Sjöström (with a cine-concert), “Japanime Night”, documentaries about cinema, a “History of the Cartoon”, a tribute to David Lynch, and a focus on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. In all, 150 films and 400 screenings promise cinephilic treasures for every possible audience.

Also worth noting, from 14-17 October, is the 13th edition of the International Classic Film Market, the world’s only market dedicated to heritage films. On the agenda are “The Re>Birth programme” featuring movies slated for restoration, a Hungary Focus, round-tables (including one on the new European AgoraEU programme and the outlook for the heritage-cinema sector), case studies, innovation pitches, a cataloguers’ meet-up, and conversations with guests of honour Andrea Kalas (Iron Mountain), Justine Ryst (managing director of YouTube France and Southern Europe) and Gaëtan Bruel (president of the CNC).