Todd Haynes, Frances McDormand, Zhang Ziyi Join Lumière Festival Lineup — SkimNews
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- Todd Haynes makes his first Lumière visit alongside producer Christine Vachon, presenting restorations of his Sundance winner Poison (1991) and Safe (1995) while programming head Maelle Arnaud calls him 'a great cinephile.'
- Joel and Ethan Coen receive this year's Lumière Award for lifetime achievement, with three-time best actress Oscar winner Frances McDormand, their longtime collaborator, joining them in Lyon.
- Robert Eggers, Zhang Ziyi and Tsui Hark round out the marquee guest list — Eggers hosts an overnight Nosferatu (2024) screening, Zhang introduces Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) at the 5,000-seat Halle Tony Garnier, and Tsui revisits Peking Opera Blues (1986).
- Lumière's 18th edition runs Oct. 10–18 in Lyon under festival director Thierry Frémaux, who also heads Cannes, previewing Cannes Grand Prix winner Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev), Lukas Dhont's Coward, Lee Chang-dong's Venice entry Possible Love and Guillaume Canet's Karma.
- Restoration efforts dominate the program: roughly 180 submissions yielded discoveries like Brazil's L'Ivrogne (1946) and Croatia's Rondo (1966), while Warner Bros.' catalog label Clockwork funded a 4K restoration of Ken Russell's The Devils (1971).
- The women filmmakers strand expands from a single director to seven, spotlighting figures like Gilda de Abreu, Elaine May and Paula Delsol whose work, Arnaud says, 'has often remained in the shadows.'
- Lumière partners with the neighbouring Annecy Festival for the first time, bridging heritage film and animation with previews of Brad Bird's Ray Gunn and Travis Knight's Wildwood.
Why it matters: The Lumière Festival is emerging as a second major promotional stop for filmmakers after Cannes, with Thierry Frémaux running both events — meaning an 18th-edition lineup that pairs seven women filmmaker retrospectives and 180 restoration submissions (including Clockwork's first 4K dig into the Warner catalogue) gives heritage cinema real theatrical reach across France, not just festival prestige.
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