Exchange with ‘Icare du Cinema’ film festival 2024

The International Aerial Film Festival, L’ICARE DU CINEMA, based in Grenoble, is a household name amongst film professionals and all those who practise free-flying. The festival shows film productions on the theme of air, wind, flight and all aerial sports such as paragliding, hang-gliding, skydiving, hot-air ballooning, muscle flying, gliding, bungee jumping, base jumping, kite flying, boomerang, etc. Films about bird flight are also allowed.

Exchange

Our team member, Karin Eken, will be attending thefestival in Chartreuse, France this September as a visitor and to tell participants about our own Dutch Mountain Film Festival. She will also be participating as a member of the jury to judge films which have been submitted to the Icare du Cinema festival. In exchange, Stéphanie, coordinator of the Icare festival will be visiting the DMFF in November this year.

The Coupe Icare

The Icare du Cinéma film festival was born out of the Coupe Icare, an event that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Ove those 50 years, Coupe Icare has grown into the most important worldwide which is devoted to aerial sport. Established by a group of passionate friends, the festival now welcomes almost 100,000 visitors in September every year.

Over the space of six days, paragliders, hang-gliders, skydivers, paramotors, ballooners and many other proponents of flying demonstrate their sport. Visitors and participants come from all corners of the globe to marvel at the performances of the best pilots, to enjoy the many artistic creations and acts, and to discover the most recent innovations in the sector.

The Coupe Icare and the film festival take place a stone’s throw away from Grenoble, at the paragliding launching sites at Saint-Hilaire above the cliffs and at the immense landing site at Lumbin 700 metres below. The whole site is, in fact, one huge open-air theatre on two floors.

Icare du Cinéma film festival

Since 1983, one of the highlights of Coupe Icare has been the Icare du Cinéma film festival. The festival brings together film productions (short, medium and long films) on the theme of air, wind, flight and all aerial sports such as paragliding, hang-gliding, skydiving, hot-air ballooning, muscle flying, gliding, bungee jumping, base jumping, kite flying and boomerang. Motorised aerial sports are limited to paramotoring, ultralight aviation, aeromodelling, aerobatics and aerial exploits. Films about birds in flight are also allowed.

Each year, around one hundred films from all over the world are sent in to the festival. After a pre-selection, the films are then submitted to the official festival jury consisting of sporting and film professionals (TV producers, directors, and, of course, our very own Karin!), as well as the press jury and the children’s jury, consisting of pupils from local primary schools.

This year for the first time a screening session will be adapted for the hearing impaired.