While the SunSète Festival has announced that it is closing its doors, the City of Sète is supporting the arrival of a new cinematographic event next October.
One disappears, another is born. While the SunSète film and audiovisual creation festival has announced that it is bowing out after this last edition, the Singular Island is preparing to host a new cinematographic event. The Creatvty festival, also dedicated to “new audiovisual creations“, was presented this Friday, June 28 at a press conference, in the presence of its president Stéphane Caput and the mayor of Sète François Commeinhes. Its arrival in the already well-filled landscape of Sète festivals also marks an evolution in the cultural policy of the City, which intends to promote a more glamorous idea of cinema.
An initiative of the mayor
This newcomer, however, does not come from nowhere.It’s François [Commeinhes NDLR] who is behind the project“, recognizes Stéphane Caput. The latter, originally from Paris and former production director for the series Tomorrow belongs to us (TF1), was also responsible for communications for the Luchon TV festival until 2021. “We left this event because it was no longer in line with our ideas”he explains. In great financial difficulty, the Luchon festival is also the subject of a complaint for “fraud and breach of trust” filed in July 2023 by the traders of Bagnères-de-Luchon. “I don’t want to defend this festival which has collapsed, what we are offering in Sète today is not in this continuity”he assures.
Show-business
Creatvty, scheduled for October 9 to 12, already has great ambitions. “We want to make it a national event”says Stéphane Caput. In this perspective, he can count on the support of the Canal + group which has already assured him an exclusive preview with the film Saint-E, in the presence of actor Louis Garrel. Substantial resources therefore, and a nice address book serving a cinema that is certainly more show-business than SunSète. Questioned on this subject, the mayor explained that the City had stopped supporting the Sète festival, because “the project leader was not fully involved and the event was gradually dying out”, thus legitimising the removal of the €15,000 subsidy previously allocated to him.
Programming elements
Although the entire program is not yet completely finalized, the organizers have already announced some for this first edition. The opening will be screened, Olympe une femme dans la révolution, a film by Mathieu Buisson and Julie Gayet whose music was composed by Audrey Ismaël. Also of note is Seul, by Pierre Isoard with Samuel Le Bihan as well as two episodes of the series Sentinelles produced by OCS Canal +. Finally, as a preview, the film Saint-Ex by Pablo Agüero with Louis Garrel will be presented.
Difference of visions
“When we took over the festival, there were 2,000 spectators, during the last edition it was 3,500”, assures Charlélie Jardin, the director of SunSète, who presents things differently. According to him, it was a misunderstanding over what a film festival should be that led to the end of municipal funding, and therefore the disappearance of the Sète event.
As proof, he wants an email sent to him by the City services in December 2023, notifying that “[sa] “The programming does not correspond to our vision of a festival dedicated to cinema and audiovisual.” A difference of visions and not “budgetary constraints”, as the deputy for Culture Jeanne Corporon suggested on June 20, who had nevertheless judged that the Sunsète was a “festival that sticks to the city and its heritage”.
