Pascal Bioulac, Mayor of Lamotte-Beuvron, wanted to set up an event highlighting the city's cinema “Le Méliès”. His multiple meetings, particularly those with the members of the future organizing committee, will lead to the creation of a film festival. The first edition, organized in less than a year, was a real success. For 6 years, more than 200 films have been received to pass the selection stage.
The members of the jury, 7 in number each year, watch between 7 and 8 films to determine the winners.
If conviviality is the key word of this festival, the theme of man and animal was chosen to be in line with Sologne and the City of Lamotte-Beuvron. A real topical subject, it leaves no one indifferent and often leads to exchange and debate.
The selected directors are invited to come and discuss after the screening of their film, a very enriching moment for the public and the jury.
Following the various debates, the spectators vote to award the Public Prize.
After two days of magnificent images and remarkable documents, the jury is invited to deliberate behind closed doors to award the Festival Prize.
Each year, a film is previewed and broadcast during the two evenings of the festival.
The first year, Nicolas Vanier’s “L’école truant” was screened and met with great success with sold-out screenings.
In 2018, the festival surprised spectators by offering “Mia and the White Lion” directed by Gilles de Maistre, two months before its national release.
In 2019, Nicolas Vanier returned, accompanied by Fred Saurel, to present his latest film “Give me wings”, a few days before its release in theaters. In 2023 the choice was made to highlight a 100% Solognot film with “return to Courjumelle and its villages” which was a success with more than 120 seats sold at each screening.
Having become an unmissable cultural event in Lamotte-Beuvron, the festival finds more and more of its audience each year and is awaited as the event of the fall.
