SCAD Lacoste Reveals 2024 Film Festival Programme

The third annual SCAD Lacoste Film Festival is set to take place over three days in France’s breathtaking Luberon Valley and will feature exclusive screenings and award-winning industry professionals. 

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is hosting the event from June 27 to 29 at the university’s study abroad location in majestic Lacoste, in the Vaucluse department in southeastern France. The festival includes tributes to French film artisans, special events and industry insights from honoured guests directly relating to many of the university’s top-ranked, preeminent degree programmes, including acting, film and television, production design and fashion. 

“With an acclaimed lineup of artisans, actors and auteurs in attendance, this year’s SCAD Lacoste Film Festival promises to be our largest and most exciting edition yet,” SCAD theatres and festivals executive director Christina Routhier said. “This medieval oasis, with its enchanting views of the Luberon Valley, are a fantastical backdrop for filmmakers and movie stars to share their experiences and insights in a uniquely intimate setting with our students and the community. Treasured films from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, spanning several decades, will find new audiences at SCAD Lacoste’s outdoor stage and theatre during the festival.” 

The SCAD Lacoste Film Festival is presented by SCADFILM, the university’s leading programmer of events for students and working professionals in animation, film and television, interactive design and game development, motion media design, immersive reality and digital media arts.  

To kick off the festival on Thursday, June 27, SCAD will present the Étoile Award to legendary Golden Globe Award and BAFTA-winning British actor Miranda Richardson (Tom & Viv, Harry Potter, Damage) prior to a screening of Robert Altman’s Kansas City. Richardson, who shines in the 1996 film, which intertwines gangsters, politics and jazz of the 1930s era, will participate in a conversation event after the screening. 

Academy Award-winning British costume designer Janty Yates (The Martian, House of Gucci, Napoleon) will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award on Thursday evening. A frequent collaborator with director Ridley Scott, Yates won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their first project together, 2001’s Gladiator. Her most recent film is Scott’s highly anticipated sequel to the film, Gladiator II, which is scheduled to be released in theatres this November. 

“I am so excited to attend this festival in beautiful Lacoste and engage with the students, many of whom will be future creatives in our industry,” Yates said. “I am very proud and honoured to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from SCAD.” 

On Friday, June 28, preeminent French production designer Anne Seibel (Midnight in Paris, Emily in Paris, Casanova) from Apple TV+’s The New Look will attend the festival. Her conversation will be accompanied by a screening of an episode from the series, which chronicles the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior in post-Second World War Paris. 

Another notable guest of the festival this year is award-winning documentarian and director Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict). On Friday, Vreeland will participate in a post-screening conversation on her 2020 film Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, which showcases the personal struggles and cultural impact of literary titans Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. 

Celebrated director, artist and photographer Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, Nowhere Boy, A Million Little Pieces) will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award during a special screening of her new film Back to Black, with a conversation to follow alongside acclaimed producer Alison Owen (Elizabeth, Saving Mr Banks, Ghosts). Based on the life of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, Back to Black journeys through her turbulent personal life and struggles with addiction as she completes her groundbreaking album of the same name. 

Renowned French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, Alien: Resurrection, Delicatessen) will receive the festival’s Auteur Award on Saturday, June 29. Known for his collaborations with Marc Caro and cult classic films such as The City of Lost Children and Delicatessen, Jeunet will present his most famous film – the 2001 Oscar-nominated international sensation Amélie – on the closing night of the festival. 

The festival also includes a special screening of Falbalas, Jacques Becker’s classic 1945 film that captures the glamorous yet tumultuous world of Parisian haute couture. Becker’s film and its sartorial styles were a central work of inspiration to famed designer Jean Paul Gaultier, whose CinéMode par Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition is on view SCAD FASH Lacoste Museum of Fashion + Film until Monday, September 30. The screening will be preceded by a prerecorded introduction featuring Gaultier and SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace. 

 

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

Kansas City 

USA/France, 116 min | 1996 

Thursday, June 27 | 5.30pm, Theatre du SCAD 

Master of improvisatory filmmaking Robert Altman aimed his cinematic sights on the improvisatory artform of jazz in this thrilling crime drama set against the backdrop of the legendary music scene of Altman’s birthplace. Meticulously recreating the pulsating rhythms of Kansas City in the 1930s, the film blends elements of the classic gangster movie and screwball comedy to tell the intertwined stories of a fast-talking gangster’s moll, a corrupt politician’s wife, and a stable of vividly realized characters whose fates all collide. The film features many hallmarks of Altman’s signature storytelling, including a characteristically stellar ensemble cast headlined by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Harry Belafonte, Steve Buscemi, Dermot Mulroney, and Etoile Award honoree Miranda Richardson, who shines in a beautifully complex and poignant standout performance. 

Actor Miranda Richardson will be presented with the Etoile Award. A conversation with Richardson will follow the screening. 

Presented in English with French subtitles. 

Gladiator 

USA, 155 min | 2000 

Thursday, June 27 | 8.30pm, Maison Basse Lawn 

There’s no way you cannot be entertained by Ridley Scott’s triumphant epic that redefined and revitalized the “sword and sandal” spectacles of yore with its rousing intelligence and cinematic bravura. Russell Crowe commands the screen as former Roman General Maximus, who is exiled into slavery, trained as a gladiator, and returns to Rome to exact vengeance on the man responsible for the murder of his family, Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Rooted in high emotional stakes and human tragedy, this sweeping revenge saga exhilarates with its daring and glorious sense of visceral immersion and triumphed at the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Costume Design – the last by Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award honoree Janty Yates – among the five Oscars it collected. Revisit the film’s stunning action and unforgettable thrills on the big screen before its long-awaited sequel arrives later this year! 

Costume designer Janty Yates will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award. A conversation with Yates will precede the screening. 

Presented in English with French subtitles. 

Crafting the Look of The New Look 

Friday, June 28 | 2pm, Theatre du SCAD 

Go behind the scenes of Apple TV+’s The New Look with distinguished production designer Anne Seibel, as she reveals how she transformed modern-day Paris into a runway-ready period set. Transporting the audience to historic Nazi-occupied France and inside the world of high fashion, this thrilling limited series follows fashion icon Christian Dior – along with his contemporaries including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga – as he navigates the tragedy and horrors of World War II while reviving modern fashion. With a mix of masterfully constructed sets and impeccably appointed actual locations, the series culminates in a dazzling recreation of Dior’s iconic first haute couture presentation. 

Presented in English with French subtitles. 

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation 

USA, 86 min | 2020 

Friday, June 28 | 4pm, Theatre du SCAD 

From acclaimed director Lisa Immordino Vreeland – one of our great chroniclers of creative luminaries – comes a candid and innovative portrait of iconic and brilliant authors Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, two friends and geniuses who, while creating unforgettable works, were haunted by the ghosts of the past. Seamlessly collaging together rare archival clips, evocative photographs, and excerpts from their personal writings, brought to vibrant life by the voices of Jim Parsons as Capote and Zachary Quinto as Williams, Immordino Vreeland lovingly recreates the pair’s complicated relationship. Acutely observed and artfully told, the film is as much an intimate look at the lives, struggles, and cultural impact of two witty, fearlessly candid, and decidedly unconventional writers, as it is a meditation on the nature of creativity and the human condition. 

A conversation with director Lisa Immordino Vreeland will follow the screening.

 

Back to Black 

UK/USA, 122 min | 2024 

Friday, June 28 | 8.30pm, Maison Basse Lawn 

The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s rise to fame from Southgate to the Grammy Awards stage, Back to Black is told through Winehouse’s eyes with a vivid and intimate approach that reflects her own deeply felt lyrics. Featuring a staggering performance by Marisa Abela, who nails every single note as the iconic singer, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time. Poignantly directed with remarkable warmth and urgency by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the film is a tender journey through a groundbreaking creative’s process and strength. 

Taylor-Johnson will be presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award. A Q&A with Taylor-Johnson and producer Alison Owen immediately follows the screening. 

Falbalas 

France, 111 min | 1945 

Saturday, June 29 | 2pm, Theatre du SCAD 

Capturing the glamorous yet tumultuous world of Parisian haute couture, Falbalas is a dazzling exploration of love, obsession, and artistry that follows a charismatic fashion designer as the delicate threads of his professional and personal lives begin to unravel after falling for the fiancé of his best friend. Directed by Jacques Becker, a largely unsung master of French cinema whose work preceded the French New Wave, the film still embodies not only the best of the director’s era, but also the future of cinema. Becker weaves together a tapestry of lush visuals and intricate emotions, capturing the allure and fragility of the fashion industry. With sumptuous costumes and evocative cinematography, including its piercingly imaginative use of closeups, this masterpiece of elegance, refinement, and precision was a central work of inspiration to famed designer Jean Paul Gaultier, whose CinéMode par Jean Paul Gaultier is currently on exhibition at SCAD FASH Lacoste. 

“I cry each time I see Falbalas, but it gave me my vocation in life,” Gaultier said. “It directed the way that I should make fashion – somebody in action, making the clothes, doing the fittings, having a muse.” 

The screening will be preceded by a prerecorded introduction featuring Gaultier and SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace. Ticketholders also enjoy complimentary admission to CinéMode par Jean Paul Gaultier at SCAD FASH Lacoste. 

Presented in French with English subtitles.

Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) 

France, 122 min | 2001 

Saturday, June 29 | 8.30pm, Maison Basse Lawn 

A film that enchanted the hearts of audiences the world over, Amélie is the joyously whimsical story of a young waitress (Audrey Tautou in her breakout role) who discretely orchestrates the lives of the people around her to help solve their problems, only to set herself on a mission to finally do something for herself. Visionary French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet crafts an astonishingly inventive cinema confection, brimming with irresistible charms and a kid-in-a-candy shop sense of wonder. Adding to the magical atmosphere is the vivid and saturated cinematography that captures a fairytale Paris, inviting you to journey into a fantastical, romantic, and absolutely unforgettable world. 

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet will be presented with the Auteur Award. A conversation with Jeunet will precede the screening. 

Presented in French with English subtitles.

For more information on the festival, visit the 2024 SCAD Lacoste Film Festival page. 

 

 

About SCAD Lacoste 

SCAD Lacoste is a residential study-abroad location in France offering immersion in the history and culture of Provence. Course offerings each quarter are varied to apply to all SCAD areas of study and are taught by SCAD professors. Lacoste is a beautifully preserved medieval village and historic destination for artists, known for its extraordinary light and exquisite pastoral setting. SCAD Lacoste structures dating from the ninth to the 19th centuries feature cutting-edge contemporary amenities. SCAD Lacoste resources include a library, a gallery, a dining hall, and housing, as well as teaching studios dedicated to painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and digital imaging. Students interact with visiting artists, take field trips to museums and historic sites in the area, and have opportunities to exhibit their work at a local vernissage. Visit scad.edu.