Movie Stars Mingle in Medieval Provence
Now in its second year, SCAD takes its French film festival to the next level with greater talent-studded programming.
The Savannah College of Art and Design is helping of Southern hospitality to France’s Luberon Valley for the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival, which runs June 27 to 29.
Now in its third year, the fest was conceived as top-up highlight for college students doing their semester abroad at SCAD’s campus in Lacoste, a picturesque medieval village in the heart of Provence.
“[SCAD founder and president] Paula Wallace always wants to make sure our students have access to the best of everything,” says Christina Routhier, executive director of SCAD Theaters and Festivals. “The focus [at SCAD Lacoste] is on film majors: acting, directing, production, costume design. So it was a perfect fit to bring in a film festival.”
Jeremy Irons was in its inaugural edition and Leslie Manville last year, SCAD Lacoste 2024 “has about triple the programming,” says Routhier.
The VIP guest list includes BAFTA-nominated director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, Back to Black), Oscar-nominated actress Miranda Richardson (Damage, The Crying Game), Oscar-nominated French director Miranda RichardsonJean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and Oscar-winning costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator, Napoleon).
The festival is still putting the final touches on its program, but highlights will include screenings of Back to Black, the original Gladiator, The New Look and Amélie, followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers. “We do many of our screenings outdoors, and the backdrop is, well, just phenomenal,” says Routhier, underselling the college’s Maison Basse location, a restored 16th century farmhouse and garden that was once used as a gambling den by the Marquis de Sade.
“It is one of the most magical areas in the world, where artists from all over time have come to study the beauty, the architecture and, of course, the light,” says Routhier, name-checking the A-list painters — Monet, Picasso, van Gogh, et al — who have made the pilgrimage to Lacoste, seeking inspiration. “That obviously makes the Provence region very exciting for our students, who not only take classes in these historic buildings and walk these streets but do excursions throughout the entire region as well.”
If the location is one unique selling point for the SCAD Lacoste festival, another is the audience. The screenings, panels and Q&A sessions are open to the public, and the fest draws a healthy crowd of locals and tourists from the village and the surrounding region. But SCAD students make up the core; some 150 will be in Lacoste for the summer semester.
