Tim Burton, Benicio del Toro, Monica Bellucci Grace Lumière’s Opening  

The 16^th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon. 

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since starred in Burton’s long-awaited “Beetlejuice” sequel, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”. 

Ahead of the stars’ entrance, the festival paid tribute to actor Michel Blanc, beloved by generations in France, who passed away in early October. Clips from his 1979 cult comedy “Les Bronzés Font du Ski” (‘French Fried Vacation 2’) were shown, with the audience joining in karaoke-style to sing the film’s theme song, originally performed by Blanc.

Hundreds of phones were lit up in Lyon’s massive Tony Garnier concert hall, and crowds spontaneously continued singing a cappella after the karaoke session in a poignant eulogy to Blanc. A special homage will be made during the festival to French New Wave icon Alain Delon who died in August. 

During the ceremony, festival director Thierry Frémaux continued the tradition of screening restored Lumière Brothers films, reminding the audience that Lyon is the birthplace of cinema. He couldn’t resist a special nod to del Toro, saying with a smile and in his best English, “I know the cinephile in you will appreciate these.” 

Del Toro, like the other guests, will be presenting a selection of films at the fest as is the tradition, and will be hosting a masterclass: Their presence draws huge crowds to witness film classics or their works, their enthusiasm contagious.    

French Academy Award winner Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”) will inaugurate one of the festival’s new events, where she will be invited to share her favorite films with the Lyon crowd.

Several newly restored versions will be presented by their directors, including Jacques Audiard’s “Read My Lips” and Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 cult classic “Pusher.” 

Québecois wonder boy Xavier Dolan will be back at Lumière with a masterclass and a special 10^th anniversary screening of his Cannes hit “Mommy” at Lyon’s 2,000-seat Auditorium.

Throughout the festival, Frémaux, who also heads the Cannes Film Festival, will treat audiences to a few premieres from Cannes in the presence of the directors, including Coralie Forgeat’s “The Substance,” Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Precious of Cargoes” – “The Artist” director’s first foray into animation –  and Claude Lelouch’s “Finalement.”

Costa-Gavras, this year’s guest of honor, received a standing ovation as Tim Burton presented him with an honorary Lumière Prize during the ceremony.  

The traditional all-night screening this year will be dedicated to the master of underground cinema Franco-Chilean artist and director Alejandro Jodorowsky (“El topo,” “The Holy Mountain,” “Santa Sangre”), who will also deliver a masterclass. 

Festival goers will also be able to enjoy retrospectives that will allow them to either revisit films or discover new ones. That will probably be the case for the retrospective dedicated to one of Mexico’s first filmmakers, the relatively unknown Matilde Landeta, as part of the fest’s Permanent History of Women Filmmakers section.

Lumière’s annual retrospective of Hollywood legends will focus on Fred Zinnemann with a selection of a dozen films including classics like “From Here to Eternity,” “A Man for All Seasons” and “The Day of the Jackal.” The festival will dedicate another retrospective to iconic Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa’s long-time leading man. 

A total of 158 films are being shown at some 450 screenings in and around Lyon throughout the nine-day event. 

The city’s sprawling Tony Garnier Hall will be bustling again mid-week for a family screening of the 1976 classic “The Twelve Tasks of Asterix,” followed by a horror all-nighter hosted by French horror maestro Alexandre Aja (“Mother Land,” “Oxygen”). 

The recipient of the festival’s Lumière award this year is Isabelle Huppert, hailed by Variety critics the world’s best actress, who will pick up the prize on October 18. Previous laureates include Wim Wenders, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Wong Kar-Wai, Jane Campion, Jane Fonda, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino and Catherine Deneuve, Ken Loach, Miloš Forman, Pedro Almodóvar and the Dardenne Brothers.