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| Location | Cabourg, France |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Language | International |
| Website | festival-cabourg |
The Cabourg Film Festival takes place on the seaside of Normandy every year in June. With romance as its theme, the festival presents a selection of films dedicated to passion, love, and fantasies.
The festival was founded by Gonzague Saint Bris in 1983, and its director is Suzel Pietri. Today, the festival reaches several towns on the Côte Fleurie between Cabourg, Houlgate and Dives-sur-Mer. At nightfall, the festival also offers several open air screenings on the beach of Cabourg.
Both the Grand Jury, consisting of professionals from the film and cultural industries, and the Youth Jury awards prizes to the best feature films. In addition to the official competition, the Panorama section allows the public to preview a selection of French and foreign films, which are all eligible for the Audience Award.
The short film competition includes a selection of romantic French shorts that another jury will reward with the following prizes: best short film, best actress, and best actor.
During the closing ceremony, the Festival's Golden Swann Committee, composed of journalists, and film professionals, attributes the following Golden Swanns: the best romantic actress and actor, male and female breakthrough performances, the best director, and the best romantic film of the past year.
The name of the award is a reference to the novel Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust.
The trophy is made by one of the festival's partners, the Monnaie de Paris workshops. The statuette is fashioned in the form of two swans in an embrace to suggest the shape of two hearts.
The Premiers Rendez-Vous section highlights a young French actor and actress in their first appearance on screen. Additionally, since 2018, the Gonzague Saint Bris Prize distinguishes each year the best film adaptation of a literary work.
During the festival, some of the most renowned names in French, European, and international cinema come to present their films to the public or to receive an award: Isabelle Adjani, Swann Arlaud, Jacques Audiard, Emmanuelle Béart, Leïla Bekhti, Juliette Binoche, Sandrine Bonnaire, Lucas Bravo, Patrick Bruel, Guillaume Canet, François Civil, Marion Cotillard, Camille Cottin, Béatrice Dalle, Catherine Deneuve, Émilie Dequenne, Anne Dorval, Léa Drucker, Gad Elmaleh, Guillaume Gallienne, Gustave Kervern, Vincent Lacoste, Sophie Marceau, Noémie Merlant, Pierre Niney, Vanessa Paradis, Léa Seydoux, Céline Sciamma, Audrey Tautou, Zhang Ziyi, Rebecca Zlotowski.