Vesoul Asian Film Festival
The Festival international des cinémas d'Asie (FICA) de Vesoul was founded in 1995. With almost 30,000 admissions for 90 films per edition, it is the largest and oldest Asian film festival in the world, and the only one to present films from the entire Asian continent, from the Near to the Far East.
Festival presentation
The Festival des cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul is now the most important festival about Asia in Europe. For 30 years now, the FICA has been helping to promote and recognize cinematographies that are still too little known. Its 30,000 spectators attest to the fact that Asian auteur cinema is just as interesting as Asia itself, and that's what links Inalco to FICA.
The Prix Inalco screening is now a highlight of Inalco's cultural programming, and a discovery for our students, from an Iranian film to an Indian or an Indonesian...
The four-member Inalco jury - teaching staff, students and administrative staff - is lucky enough to live at the Vésulien rhythm for a week each year. Inalco students, staff and teachers also have the opportunity to enjoy the festival, thanks to the accreditation offered to them.
Inalco in Vesoul
Since 2004, the start of our partnership with FICA, the Inalco jury has rewarded cinema from Iran, Indonesia, Korea, India, China, the Philippines, Israel and Kurdistan...with the Prix Inalco (1,500 euros) and the Coup de cœur Inalco (symbolic). Our 4-member jury judges the ten films in the fiction competition. The winning film is then screened in the Inalco auditorium.
On the program for the 2024 edition
- Thematic: Commitment
- 30 years of FICA, 30 years of Prix NETPAC
- Focus: A look at Indian cinema from Keralaand A look at cinema from Taiwan
Join the festival: why register?
Join the festival: why register?
FICA is:
- A unique opportunity for students and teachers to see original remastered or premiered creations from the countries that concern them;
- Enrich their personal film culture while meeting actors, directors and producers from Asian cinema;
- An opportunity for students working on cinema, image or intercultural issues to gain direct access to the professional film world.
A call for applications is circulated on Inalco's social networks ahead of the festival to enable students to join the Inalco jury.
Testimonials from members of the Inalco delegation
Testimonials from members of the Inalco delegation
Our duty as a jury, but also as bulimic film buffs, had begun!
With an average of 4 or even 5 films a day, it was hard not to lose sight of our first task. How could we resist the call of the dark rooms, the different sections of the Festival and the dozen or so films on offer every day? First of all, we were able to see films in the language and culture we were studying. We then extended our curiosity to all Asian cultures, through films of very diverse origins and styles. Meetings with foreign filmmakers and artists, both for interviews
and informal encounters, were a personal enrichment for everyone, but also a pleasure. Finally, thanks to our shared passion for cinema, away from the lecture halls we were able to meet students and professors from other departments at Inalco, work together and forge strong links. With new recruits to form the jury, many of us look forward to meeting up again in Vesoul next year.
Cédric Fizet, 2004 delegation
Discovery and volunteering
Wafa Ghermani discovered the Vesoul International Asian Film Festival in 2001. As a bachelor's student at the time, she chose it as the subject of a sociology of cinema assignment. The following year, she began volunteering at the festival. Over the years, Wafa has been able to put her excellent command of the Chinese language to good use, welcoming Chinese-speaking filmmakers, interpreting and translating.
When the retrospective project was confirmed, Jean-Marc Thérouanne suggested a perspective on the new Taiwanese cinema, Hou Hsiaohsien, Edward Yang and so on. I suggested expanding the retrospective chronologically by looking at what had been produced before. When the budget was confirmed, I was put in charge of choosing films. The organizers wanted to include mainly recent films, with four older ones, which I selected. Then we had to negotiate the rights to certain films, such as Hidden Whispers, which was being distributed in Switzerland but for which the rights were in Taiwan. For each film, we had to negotiate the rights and then
pay for the rental of prints at the cinematheque, transport and insurance, which involved a lot of costs. The distributors, who wondered why we wanted to show these films, even gave me a nice gift, they were so happy.
Propositions collected in 2010 by Kate Chaillat and Lucile Constant
Films awarded by the Inalco jury since 2004
