The Chefs op' festival runs from 28/02 to 8 March. The programme includes 65 films, including 33 previews, 19 shorts and 22 events.
The Chefs op' en Lumière festival is dedicated to the behind-the-scenes professions in the film industry, and more specifically to cinematographers. It's a unique event in France.
The festival is growing, as the following figures show:
65 films (features) including 33 previews, 19 shorts + 6 different juries + 23 different events (Cine-concerts, round tables, conferences, Master classes, workshops....)
THE JURY :
Agnès Godard (AFC) will chair the 2026 jury. An iconic figure in French cinema, she was one of the first female cinematographers. In a career spanning 40 years, she has followed the evolution of technology and cinema, moving from the world of Henri Alekan to Ursula Meier, via Claire Denis, Agnès Varda, André Téchiné and many others.
The co-director of Positif magazine, N.T.Binh, actress and director Alex Poukhine, and cinematographers Fiona Braillon (AFC) and David Quesemand (AFC) will complete the jury.
THIS YEAR'S PROGRAMME:
SCREENINGS
The Chefs Op' en Lumière 2026 Festival will be showcasing films never before seen in France, committed auteur works and restored films, as well as public screenings open to all. Here are the highlights:
- The Competition
8 European feature films will be competing for the festival's highest honour: the Jury Prize.
An Audience Prize will also be awarded, as well as a Student and High School Prize.
- New: A short film competition
The short films selected must have been photographed by cinematographers. These directors will be invited to present their films at the two screenings scheduled for Monday at 4pm and Tuesday at 10am.
The aim is to bring out the new voices of independent cinema and spot the talent of tomorrow.
(A competition organised in collaboration with the Collectif "Femmes à la caméra").
2 prizes will be awarded at the closing ceremony.
- Previews and major stories: fiction and drama rooted in recent history or politics around the world, works that question collective memory and contemporary social fractures. These films, screened before their national release, are at the heart of the festival's identity, with over 30 previews.
- Opening and closing films
The festival opens in style on Monday 2 March with the preview screening of Kirk Jones' I swear, which was a huge hit in the UK when it was released.
It will close in the same way on Saturday 7 March with Silent friend by Ildiko Enyedi, presented at the last Venice Festival,
- A ciné-concert on Saturday 28 February, with a new creation by 4 musicians for the festival, based on Julien Duvivier's masterpiece Au bonheur des dames.
- A total of 66 films from all over the world will be screened, ranging from award-winning works at major international festivals to gems still unknown to the general public.
THE EVENTS
- EXHIBITION: THE RUSE OF THE VISIBLE
This temporary exhibition, entitled La ruse du visible (The Cunning of the Visible), will be devoted to a notion common to photography and cinema: the "off-camera". Organised in partnership with the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, the exhibition will feature photographs by AFC cinematographers alongside those from the museum's collections.
o Cinema explores its own off-screen. The off-screen becomes tension, continuity, an effect of expectation or resolution. It serves the narrative, acting as a promise of an image to come, or an afterglow of a past image.
o The photograph, on the other hand, remains and promises nothing. It is there, suspended, silent, unresolved. In its fixity, it hollows out an active void, an absence that works on the gaze.
Opening on Monday 2 February at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce.
- A FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO GAMES AND CINEMA
This will be presented on Wednesday 4 March, with two sequences:
o A screening of the feature film The Knit's Island , l'île sans fin, with one of the directors, Quentin L'helgoualc'h. This film combines documentary cinema and video games.
Somewhere on the Internet, there is a 250 km² space where people come together as a community to simulate a survivalist fiction. Under the guise of avatars, a film crew enters this space and comes into contact with the players. Who are these inhabitants? Are they really playing?
o Interview with Renaud Charpentier, game director of Empire of the Ants, nominated in three categories at Gamescom 2024 (best visuals, best gameplay, best PC game).
o This focus will be rounded off by a meeting on Thursday 5 March with Mihai Grecu, visual artist, film-maker and 3D computer graphics artist. He will talk about how he incorporates artificial intelligence into his work.
- MEETINGS WITH PROFESSIONALS
o Master classes
-Manu Dacosse, who has just signed the image for L'Étranger (François Ozon) - Friday 6 March 10am) in partnership with IMAgo International
-Frida Marzouk (Les Chroniques d'Haïfa, Promis le Ciel, Quand le vent se lève...) - Tuesday 3 March in partnership with the AFC
-Alexandre Astier and Jean-Marie Dreujou on Saturday 7 March
o Round tables
-How to film music? - Saturday 7 March in partnership with the UCO and the AFC
-The relationship between cinematographers and directors - Monday 2 March in partnership with APARR (the association of cinema professionals in Burgundy Franche-Comté)
-Workshops
-Controlled lighting (3 sequences on Wednesday 4 March) in partnership with the UCO
- Equipment presentations and feedback
- The new Red/NIKON camera - Monday 2 March
- Presentation of the Stemirax by its creator Théo Fauger: a system that optically superimposes two images in real time as soon as the shot is taken - Monday 2 March
-A look back at the TSF backlot: a platform of Parisian street sets, offering directors, cinematographers and set designers the chance to create their own worlds - Tuesday 3 March
Practical info
- Dates: 28 February to 8 March 2026
- Venue: Chalon/Saône: Espace des Arts and Megarama
- Free entry for all events but booking strongly advised
- Full programme on the official Festival Chefs Op' website from the end of January. www.festivalchefsop.fr
The festival is growing, as the following figures show:
65 films (features) including 33 previews, 19 shorts + 6 different juries + 23 different events (Cine-concerts, round tables, conferences, Master classes, workshops....)
THE JURY :
Agnès Godard (AFC) will chair the 2026 jury. An iconic figure in French cinema, she was one of the first female cinematographers. In a career spanning 40 years, she has followed the evolution of technology and cinema, moving from the world of Henri Alekan to Ursula Meier, via Claire Denis, Agnès Varda, André Téchiné and many others.
The co-director of Positif magazine, N.T.Binh, actress and director Alex Poukhine, and cinematographers Fiona Braillon (AFC) and David Quesemand (AFC) will complete the jury.
THIS YEAR'S PROGRAMME:
SCREENINGS
The Chefs Op' en Lumière 2026 Festival will be showcasing films never before seen in France, committed auteur works and restored films, as well as public screenings open to all. Here are the highlights:
- The Competition
8 European feature films will be competing for the festival's highest honour: the Jury Prize.
An Audience Prize will also be awarded, as well as a Student and High School Prize.
- New: A short film competition
The short films selected must have been photographed by cinematographers. These directors will be invited to present their films at the two screenings scheduled for Monday at 4pm and Tuesday at 10am.
The aim is to bring out the new voices of independent cinema and spot the talent of tomorrow.
(A competition organised in collaboration with the Collectif "Femmes à la caméra").
2 prizes will be awarded at the closing ceremony.
- Previews and major stories: fiction and drama rooted in recent history or politics around the world, works that question collective memory and contemporary social fractures. These films, screened before their national release, are at the heart of the festival's identity, with over 30 previews.
- Opening and closing films
The festival opens in style on Monday 2 March with the preview screening of Kirk Jones' I swear, which was a huge hit in the UK when it was released.
It will close in the same way on Saturday 7 March with Silent friend by Ildiko Enyedi, presented at the last Venice Festival,
- A ciné-concert on Saturday 28 February, with a new creation by 4 musicians for the festival, based on Julien Duvivier's masterpiece Au bonheur des dames.
- A total of 66 films from all over the world will be screened, ranging from award-winning works at major international festivals to gems still unknown to the general public.
THE EVENTS
- EXHIBITION: THE RUSE OF THE VISIBLE
This temporary exhibition, entitled La ruse du visible (The Cunning of the Visible), will be devoted to a notion common to photography and cinema: the "off-camera". Organised in partnership with the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, the exhibition will feature photographs by AFC cinematographers alongside those from the museum's collections.
o Cinema explores its own off-screen. The off-screen becomes tension, continuity, an effect of expectation or resolution. It serves the narrative, acting as a promise of an image to come, or an afterglow of a past image.
o The photograph, on the other hand, remains and promises nothing. It is there, suspended, silent, unresolved. In its fixity, it hollows out an active void, an absence that works on the gaze.
Opening on Monday 2 February at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce.
- A FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO GAMES AND CINEMA
This will be presented on Wednesday 4 March, with two sequences:
o A screening of the feature film The Knit's Island , l'île sans fin, with one of the directors, Quentin L'helgoualc'h. This film combines documentary cinema and video games.
Somewhere on the Internet, there is a 250 km² space where people come together as a community to simulate a survivalist fiction. Under the guise of avatars, a film crew enters this space and comes into contact with the players. Who are these inhabitants? Are they really playing?
o Interview with Renaud Charpentier, game director of Empire of the Ants, nominated in three categories at Gamescom 2024 (best visuals, best gameplay, best PC game).
o This focus will be rounded off by a meeting on Thursday 5 March with Mihai Grecu, visual artist, film-maker and 3D computer graphics artist. He will talk about how he incorporates artificial intelligence into his work.
- MEETINGS WITH PROFESSIONALS
o Master classes
-Manu Dacosse, who has just signed the image for L'Étranger (François Ozon) - Friday 6 March 10am) in partnership with IMAgo International
-Frida Marzouk (Les Chroniques d'Haïfa, Promis le Ciel, Quand le vent se lève...) - Tuesday 3 March in partnership with the AFC
-Alexandre Astier and Jean-Marie Dreujou on Saturday 7 March
o Round tables
-How to film music? - Saturday 7 March in partnership with the UCO and the AFC
-The relationship between cinematographers and directors - Monday 2 March in partnership with APARR (the association of cinema professionals in Burgundy Franche-Comté)
-Workshops
-Controlled lighting (3 sequences on Wednesday 4 March) in partnership with the UCO
- Equipment presentations and feedback
- The new Red/NIKON camera - Monday 2 March
- Presentation of the Stemirax by its creator Théo Fauger: a system that optically superimposes two images in real time as soon as the shot is taken - Monday 2 March
-A look back at the TSF backlot: a platform of Parisian street sets, offering directors, cinematographers and set designers the chance to create their own worlds - Tuesday 3 March
Practical info
- Dates: 28 February to 8 March 2026
- Venue: Chalon/Saône: Espace des Arts and Megarama
- Free entry for all events but booking strongly advised
- Full programme on the official Festival Chefs Op' website from the end of January. www.festivalchefsop.fr