France Bleu Sud Lorraine celebrates its 40th anniversary and retraces the highlights of four decades. Focus today on two festivals born in the 90s and which made the Vosges famous: the Gérardmer Fantastic Film Festival and the FIG of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges.
The first stars of what was then Fantastic’Arts landed on the banks of Lake Gérardmer in 1994. Until then in Avoriaz in Haute Savoie, the fantasy film festival settles in the Vosges for good, under the leadership of enthusiasts and volunteers who are still active, every January, to welcome the public and personalities from the world of cinema and well beyond. So in 2024, it was the writer Bernard Werber who chaired the jury where Johnny Hallyday, Claude Brasseur, Doc Gynéco, Michel Delpech, Benoît Poelvoorde, Marion Cotillard or Gérard Jugnot, Mathieu Kassowitz… also sat.
Four years earlier, it was in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges that another festival was born whose fame transcends borders. What could be more normal for a International Geography Festivalthe “FIG” for short, created in 1994 under the leadership of the city’s mayor at the time, Christian Pierret. “It’s a moment of relaxation at the same time as a moment where we are interested in current events through geography” the former elected official still welcomes today. Indeed, each year the meeting brings together geographers, novelists, essayists, sociologists, politicians and philosophers around round tables, conferences, debates and the awarding of prestigious prizes in the field. The next edition will be held on October 4, 5 and 6, 2024.
