La Rochelle Cinema Festival 2026: what is this festival which offers 300 screenings and 200 films from June 26 to July 4?

Sa notoriété ? After Cannes, Fema is the biggest general cinema event in France. With nearly 90,000 entries last year, the La Rochelle event, which nevertheless has one of the smallest budgets, is doing much better than the French-speaking film festival of Angoulême in Charente (58,000 entries), “Nouvelles Vagues” of Biarritz in the Basque Country (12,000) or even Deauville in Normandy (60,000).

What will the 54th edition look like? You don’t change a formula that works. This year again, Fema is offering 300 screenings, 200 films, 30 previews. Screenings in black and white, complete films, docs, film concerts, a section for young audiences, meetings with filmmakers.

The opening and closing evenings? “Marriage with the taste of orange” new film by Christophe Honoré will be screened opening Friday June 26, at 8 p.m. in the main theater. At the same time, “The mass is over” by Nanni Moretti, is presented in the blue room. “The Party” by Blake Edwards will close the week on Saturday July 4, at 8:30 p.m., in the main hall.

OùÂ? This happens in all the rooms of the Dragon CGR, Cours des Dames, and at La Coursive, rue Saint-Jean-du-Pérot, whose large theater and its 1,000 seats are transformed during the festival into a cinema. The former Dor school becomes the headquarters for festival-goers and artists.