a 2022 edition under the sign of originality

“What makes a festival successful”asks the president of the event Stéphane Strano? “To carry high its colors and its talents in France and internationally. To debate and build the fiction of tomorrow. To promote and federate ever more players in the profession. To reach an ever-growing audience. Our DNA is French creation. And the whole world only has eyes for fiction…” In short, after two years of health crisis, with all the restrictions and hazards it has generated, the 2022 edition of the La Rochelle Fiction Festival promises to be of unprecedented richness.

On the program: 41 works in official competition, including 25 French, selected with the greatest care by a committee chaired by the former boss of France Télévisions Marc Tessier, anxious to honor the fictions that will shape the major trends of tomorrow , to promote complexity, break free from stereotypes and highlight the diversity of works. Among them, singles, 52-minute and 26-minute series, long series and full series, Quebec series, many Scandinavians, a Ukrainian creation and quite a few French ones.

“It has been said a lot that French fiction was plan-plan. I can assure you that this is no longer the case at all.”, says Marc Tessier. The work of the jury, chaired this year by the actress Sandrine Bonnaireis therefore expected to be difficult around Trap, Neither do I and For you Flora, three productions from Quebec, guest of honor for this edition; five Scandinavian works including Limbo and Elvira ; the ukrainian series Picnic whose producers will be present in La Rochelle; the english fire Life and Death in The WarehouseSwitzerland life aheadnotably.

At the end of the Festival, the jury will award 15 prizes among 41 works including 25 French, 10 European and 6 foreign French-speaking fictions. In the list of 25 French women, some immediately catch the eye. spirit of winter (Arte), psychological thriller in three episodes adapted from the eponymous novel by Laura Kasischke, with Audrey Fleurot. The story of Annette Zelman (France Télévisions), a unitary in costumes signed Philippe Le Guay on a screenplay by Emmanuel Salinger, with Julie Gayet and Laurent Lucas in the main roles. Life, love, right now (M6), a fiction by Nicolas Cuche, with, among others, Anne Marivin.

The Canal+ event series, Marie Antoinette, will be screened at the opening of the festival. The fiction tracing the fate of Diane de Poitiers, played by Isabelle Adjani, will also be the subject of a preview.