Movies - Avignon: the french comedy event of summer 2025 celebrating theater, the art of lying, and the love of the stage.

By Mulder, 23 may 2025

It's a comedy that arrives with honors, laughter, and a theatrical summer vibe: Avignon, the new film by Johann Dionnet, will be released in French theaters on June 18, 2025, and already promises to be a highlight of the movie season. Winner of the Grand Prix and Canal+ Award for Best Film at the last Alpe d'Huez International Comedy Film Festival, this work written by Johann Dionnet and Benoît Graffin promises to be a true tribute to theater in all its forms, but also a tender and satirical mirror of a certain world of live performance, with its struggles, egos, follies... and its heartfelt moments. Judging by the warm reception it received at preview screenings at the Le Capitole du Pontet and Vox d'Avignon cinemas last March, the film has everything it takes to become a popular and critical success.

What strikes you first about the Avignon project is the intelligence of its conception: a French comedy for the general public, but deeply rooted in a cultural reality rarely celebrated on screen, that of the Avignon Festival. Shot in the heart of the papal city in the summer of 2024—from the Rue des Teinturiers to the Palais des Papes, passing by many iconic theaters such as Au Palace and the Place des Corps-Saints—the film captures the very essence of this unique event. This is not a reconstructed setting, but an immersion into a world where enthusiasts, artists seeking recognition, theater directors, curious tourists, and stubborn dreamers come together every year. The Avignon Festival is a strange alchemy of nobility and precariousness, intensity and exhaustion, where every street corner becomes a stage and every glance can hide a role. Choosing this setting is a promise of a lively, vibrant, and effervescent experience.

The film also marks the long-awaited return of Baptiste Lecaplain, here in the lead role, whose comic sensibility, often on edge, finds an ideal playground. Alongside a cast that includes Elisa Erka, Amaury de Crayencour, Rudy Milstein, Lyes Salem, Alison Wheeler, and Johann Dionnet himself, there is a clear desire to bring together a group of actors capable of juggling pure humor, disarming sincerity, and benevolent lightheartedness. Without giving away the plot, it is clear that the film plays on the boundary between what is performed on stage and what is performed in life, which offers rich potential for writing—especially when it comes to a lie that escapes its initial context and invades reality.

But Avignon is not just a setting or a pretext: it is a loving and lucid look at a world that is often fantasized about but rarely explored in contemporary French cinema. Where films tend to focus on the Parisian scene or major national institutions, this one deliberately descends into the burning arena of live theater, where people hand out flyers in the street, perform in front of ten or 150 people in stifling theaters, and share tiny dressing rooms and huge dreams. There is an energy there that French comedy too rarely exploits. And behind the humor, we sense a genuine desire to talk about the precarious nature of the artistic life, the need for recognition, and the feeling of invisibility that affects so many performers. The choice of a main character facing professional difficulties is not insignificant: it touches on a reality experienced by many theater actors, for whom each season is a new challenge and each festival an opportunity to be seized.

Director Johann Dionnet, whom some viewers will also recognize in front of the camera, is no stranger to writing and acting. He follows in the footsteps of French filmmaker-actors such as Blier, Bedos, and Podalydès, who know how to portray their milieu without condescension or excessive nostalgia. Co-written with Benoît Graffin, whose career shows a strong taste for charming romantic comedy (Un homme à la hauteur, L'Arnacœur), the script promises a subtle balance between burlesque, humanity, and social observation.

It's a form of old-fashioned comedy, in the best sense of the word: where we laugh at situations, of course, but also at ourselves, our foibles, and our clumsiness. Behind the camera is Thomas Rames, who has captured the sunny, bustling atmosphere of Avignon during the festival. The film is produced by Nolita Cinéma, TF1 Studio, and France 2 Cinéma, with Warner Bros. handling distribution in France, demonstrating strong confidence in the film's potential. This combination guarantees national visibility and, hopefully, a life on the festival circuit, as the film seems tailor-made for audiences who love simple but true emotions.

With its release scheduled for June 18, Avignon is already establishing itself as a unique offering in the summer movie landscape. It is a work that will appeal to theater lovers and comedy enthusiasts alike, and will undoubtedly reawaken in everyone that sweet thrill of waiting for the curtain to rise, that delicious nervousness before a premiere, or even that twinge of heartache caused by a single word: “curtain.” In the meantime, all that remains is to soak up the atmosphere, imagine the improvised stages and the applause in the southern heat, and hope that this Avignon will offer us, both in the theater and on stage, the sincere laughter we so desperately need.

Synopsis :
A struggling actor, Stéphane arrives with his troupe at the Avignon Festival to perform a light comedy. There he runs into Fanny, a renowned actress, and falls under her spell. Taking advantage of a misunderstanding to get closer to her, Stéphane gets caught up in a lie that he will have to keep up for the duration of the festival... but which will quickly get out of hand!

Avignon
Directed by Johann Dionnet
Produced by Mikael Govciyan
Written by Johann Dionnet, Benoît Graffin
Starring Baptiste Lecaplain, Elisa Erka, Amaury de Crayencour, Johann Dionnet, Romain Francisco, Rudy Milstein, Ariane Mourier, Lyes Salem, Alison Wheeler
Cinematography : Thomas Rames
Production companies : Nolita Cinéma, Studio TF1 Cinéma, France 2 Cinéma
Distributed by Warner Bros (France)
Release date : June 18, 2025 (France)
Running time : 100 minutes