Editorial by David Lisnard
Mayor of Cannes – Chairman of the Agglomération Cannes Lérins
Chairman, Association des Maires de France
And onward to the Festival…
Cinema is an essential witness to its times. The International Festival of Ecological and Social Films, which we are delighted to host in Cannes and of which we are a loyal partner, furrows this furrow with works, both documentary and fiction, anchored in the 2025 theme: Water in all its states, from rivers to oceans.
Presented at the Espace Miramar, a municipal cinema, and at the Arcades and Olympia, private cinemas whose commitment we salute, the selected films will trace the horizon of the world’s water situation, from small streams to immense horizons.
How could Cannes, so inextricably linked with the Mediterranean, not feel concerned by such a theme? Our mission is to protect our sea, which, as the poet sang, we don’t want to stop dancing along the clear gulfs. In our town, there’s no punitive ecology, all too often used by those with short-sighted ideas, but rather innovation. Initiatives large and small, often pioneering and taken up by other communities, as was our Ici commence la mer campaign: anti-waste baskets and nets in towns to prevent the dumping of plastic and cigarette butts in the sea, regularly cleaned marine waters, restoration and protection of posidonia, those sea grasses which even when dead protect the ecosystem, uncompromising fight against incivism and implacable sanctions against polluters, technological buoys to study the seabed… Not forgetting, of course, our pioneering and innovative action to combat the wasteful use of drinking water by reusing treated wastewater to clean roads or irrigate green spaces.
Social and ecological issues cannot be dissociated, nor can they be built in contempt of each other, as this Festival demonstrates by its very title. Ecology must be creative, effective and common-sense, and must not stand in the way of individual freedom and responsibility, which are the prerequisites for personal fulfillment. I’d like to welcome the organizers, jury president James Gerard, and godmother Camille de Casabianca, dear to the hearts of film fans, not least for her role in the magnificent film by her father, the great Alain Cavalier: Un Étrange Voyage.
FIFES invites you to join us on another collective voyage of solidarity on calm or turbulent seas.
All the best to all festival-goers!
David LISNARD
