Festival Lumière

Festival Lumière: The Grand Celebration of Heritage Cinema

The Festival Lumière was born in 2009 from an idea as obvious as it was visionary: to celebrate heritage cinema in the very city where it was invented. Driven by the Institut Lumière and its general delegate Thierry Frémaux, who is also the director of the Cannes Film Festival, this event has become in a few years the largest festival in the world dedicated to classic cinema and the history of the 7th art.

The Prix Lumière: A Nobel Prize for Cinema

Each edition culminates with the presentation of the Prix Lumière, an honorary award given to a personality who has made a mark on cinema history. This award, often compared to a "Nobel Prize for Cinema," has honored the greatest: Clint Eastwood (2009), Milos Forman (2010), Gérard Depardieu (2011), Ken Loach (2012), Quentin Tarantino (2013), Pedro Almodóvar (2014), Martin Scorsese (2015), Catherine Deneuve (2016), Wong Kar-wai (2017), Jane Fonda (2018), Francis Ford Coppola (2019), Tim Burton (2022), Wim Wenders (2023), and Michael Mann (2025).

Lyon, City of Cinema

The festival takes over Lyon's most beautiful venues: Pathé Bellecour, the Auditorium de Lyon, the Hangar du Premier-Film (the historic site where the Lumière brothers filmed La Sortie de l'usine Lumière in 1895), the Halle Tony Garnier, and the Centre de Congrès. For a week, the entire city beats to the rhythm of cinema, with screenings from morning to night, meetings with filmmakers, and live-scored film events.

A Program Between Heritage and Discovery

Each year, the Festival Lumière offers hundreds of screenings: complete retrospectives, newly restored films, cinematic rarities and curiosities, preview screenings of restorations, master classes, and talks. The festival hosts numerous international film personalities, creating a unique atmosphere where cinephiles, professionals, and the general public come together in a shared passion for the big screen.

A Popular and Accessible Event

With nearly 180,000 spectators each year, the Festival Lumière has successfully attracted a large and diverse audience. Affordable ticket prices (some screenings starting at 6 euros), outdoor screenings, and free events contribute to making this festival a moment of sharing and transmission of cinematic heritage.