Festival La Rochelle Cinéma - FEMA

Since 1973, the Festival La Rochelle Cinéma (Fema) has been a major cinema festival at the start of summer. Today, Fema remains non-competitive, with a large and loyal audience, and films past and present from all over the world. It's a meeting place for filmmakers, prestigious actors and actresses, professionals, journalists and students from France and all over the world.

Fema presents some 200 films from the silent era to today's cinema, with retrospectives devoted to filmmakers who have marked the history of the 7th art and tributes to contemporary directors, actresses and actors.

For this 53rd edition:
Retrospectives
- Edward Yang
Edward Yang, who passed away 18 years ago (June 29, 2007), was one of the greatest Asian filmmakers of the end of the last century. His 7 films, strongly influenced by the new European waves and American cinema, also bear witness to the evolution of Chinese cinema and the transformation of Taiwan in the 80s and 90s.

7 films

In partnership with Carlotta Films and with the support of the Taiwan Cultural Center and the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.

- Claude chabrol
Claude Chabrol, who passed away in September 2010 - almost 15 years ago - left his mark on the history of French cinema, with 56 feature films made for the screen (or 58, depending on your filmography!). Director, screenwriter, dialogue writer, producer and actor, he is considered one of the pioneers of the Nouvelle Vague.

12 films and a documentary

In partnership with Tamasa and in advance of the theatrical release of the "Claude Chabrol, première Vague" cycle on July 9, 2025.
In partnership with Ciné + and in collaboration with CCRA, Afcae, Cinémathèque française, Insas and Riga International Film Festival.

- Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck portrayed independent, combative women in the crisis-ridden America of the 1930s, in pre-Code films that flouted the morality censored by the Hays Code (Alfred E. Green's Baby Face), and accompanied the early successes of Frank Capra, who praised her authenticity - "she could move you to the very depths of your being", as he put it - right up to the consecration of The Man in the Street.

9 films

Retrospective in partnership with Positif, which devotes a special feature to Barbara Stanwyck in the June 2025 issue.
In collaboration with Park Circus, Sidonis, Swashbuckler Films and Warner Bros.

Tributes
- Pedro Almodovar
After growing up in the heart of La Mancha in the 1950s and training as a self-taught filmmaker, Pedro Almodovar won international acclaim in 1988 with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, as well as worldwide acclaim for his films Talons aiguilles (César for Best Foreign Film in 1993), All About My Mother (Oscar for Best Foreign Film and Prix de la mise en scène at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival) and Volver (Prix du scénario and Prix d'interprétation féminine at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival).

Selection of films in progress

In partnership with Pathé, Tamasa, Centre Pompidou and Bozar.
In collaboration with Tout en parlant.

Event
Jacques Demy
A fellow traveler of the Nouvelle Vague alongside Claude Chabrol, filmmaker Jacques Demy will be celebrated at the end of the festival with some of his finest and most famous films, set to music by Michel Legrand.

4 films

Retrospective in partnership with Ciné-Tamaris, Pathé and Médiathèque Michel-Crépeau.
In collaboration with AFFN (Archive Film Festival Network), EESI (École européenne supérieure de l'image Angoulême), Insas, La Septième Obsession, Ernest le glacier and the Orchestre d'Harmonie de la ville de La Rochelle.


Full program: https://festival-larochelle.org/