The festival

Cinema Green Lab

Les Arcs Film Festival presents the Cinema Green Lab

2019 was a turning point for the Les Arcs Film Festival team. Ecology was finally being centred in conversations throughout our society, and we felt that our audience — from industry professionals to the general public — was ready to support concrete actions. We knew it was time to increase our engagement and introduce impactful changes.

We are aware that a festival can generate a substantial carbon footprint. We also believe that this gathering of people from all over Europe, who have come to see and create the cinema of tomorrow, represents a cultural asset which has a role to play in changing mindsets and attitudes towards sustainability.

Informing, awareness-raising, debating, showing, reflecting, questioning, creating, stimulating… It’s what film festivals do. So centering a film festival around the theme of ecology means harnessing all the potential of a festival in the service of this vitally important topic.

Why a Lab?

In 2016, we launched our Femmes de Cinéma Lab which continues to work towards gender equality in the film industry. The strength of the Lab lies in its promotion of collective intelligence and participatory methodologies which facilitate listening, enhance reflection, and enable actions at various levels.

Although more remains to be done, the Lab has been recognised for its important role in the paradigm shift that is taking place in European cinema today.

The term “Lab” refers to a laboratory — a place where we try out new things, test theories, allow ourselves to experiment — which feels appropriate to our approach. We don’t have all the answers, and we’re not here to give lessons or lecture others, but rather to create a space for collective reflection, where solutions and examples can be shared, ideas and experiments tested, and creativity pooled.

What was the 2019 Cinema Green Lab like?

Climate-themed events for the general public and industry professionals.

For young audiences:

Q&A with photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand.
Q&A with climate-advocate Youtubers Akim Omiri and Jérémy Nadeau, and the "On est prêt" collective.

For industry professionals:

Workshop on the development of a sustainability charter for film festivals. Round table on sustainable filmmaking practices. Round table on the production of fiction films which raise awareness of climate issues. Workshop on the ecological impact of movie theatres. Case study of a sustainable cinema project in an eco-neighbourhood. Brainstorming session exploring a more eco-friendly use of paper products in cinemas, as part of the "Hackathon du Cinéma".

For the general public:

Use of the "Cinema Green Lab" label to help audiences identify eco-conscious films in the festival programme. Presentation of the "Cinema and Environment" award to the director, the producer, and the lead actor of In the Name of the Land. Screening of the film The Great Green Wall followed by a debate with Noël Mamère. Recording and broadcast of a 9-episode podcast on the theme of ecology.

2022 Action plan:

The festival is working on a sustainability charter which it will commit to. We still have some way to go and we need to improve our accountability practices.

Stay tuned to learn more about our climate commitments… and see how you can join in!

Powered by FestiCiné