Champs Élysées Film Festival 2025: ARCO, FAMILIAR TOUCH, L'Engulie et Dreams in Nightmare at the charts

A festival that gives pride of place to independent cinema

The Champs-Élysées Film Festival, which highlights the best of French and American independent cinema, ended on June 23 by the presentation of numerous prizes and the preview of materialists, from Celine Song, which will be released in theaters on July 2.

From animation to road movie through drama, the charts honors the diversity of independent cinema. Discover the winners!

Find the complete list of this 14th edition

The France Television Prize was awarded to the ladies of Margaux Fournier.

The press jury, composed of Brigitte Baronnet (film journalist at Allociné), Frédéric Mercier (cinema critic) and Raphaëlle Pireyre (film critic), gave 2 awards:

• The price of the best French feature film for the swallowing of Louise Hémon
• The price of the best American feature film for Dreams in Nightmares by Shatara Michelle Ford

For his part, the public rewarded 5 works:

• The prize for the best American feature film was given to Familiar Touch de Sarah Friedlann
• The prize for the best French feature film was awarded to Arco d'Ugo Bienvenu
• The price of the best American medium-feature has been awarded not to wake up the child who sleeps in Kevin Aubert
• The prize for the best French short film was awarded to Malina from Ana Blagojević
• The price for the best American short film was given to Metal by Samuel McIntosh

Finally, for the first time in the history of the festival, a discovery jury made up of three cinema professionals – Mirana Rakotozafy (Director of Distribution at Tandem); Sara Hassoun (Provincial programming manager at Condor Distribution) and Olivier Capelli (producer and founder of the production company “Les Idids”) – responsible for identifying and supporting a new generation of filmmakers, has given 4 prizes:

• The price of the best medium-feature was awarded to the ladies of Margaux Fournier, ex aequo with Do not wake up the child who sleeps from Kevin Aubert

• The prize for the best French short film was given to great boys from Chriss Itoua

• The price for the best American short film was given to Trapped de Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz

From Arco to Dreams in Nightmare: Discover the list of this eclectic edition!

The big winners of this edition are therefore the animated film Arco, directed by Ugo Bienvenu, Familiar Touch directed by Sarah Friedland, the engulf of Louise Hémon and Dreams in Nightmare by Shatara Michelle Ford.

Ugo Bienvenue, director, author and comic book illustrator signs an optimistic and colorful tale, like the rainbow combination of its young protagonist, Arco. Rightly fallen from the sky, this little boy actually comes from a distant future where it is possible to travel in time. Propelled in the year 2075, he met Iris, a ten -year -old girl. The latter will collect him and help him go home.

TMDB

Familiar Touch Makes the story of Ruth Goldman, an elegant octogenarian who receives a man for lunch. While she thinks of continuing the gallant meeting towards a surprise destination, she lands in a medical residence … carried by an appetite to live insatiable and despite her capricious memory, Ruth reclaims her age and desires there.

The swallowed took place in 1899. By a storm night, Aimée, a young republican teacher, arrived in a snowy hamlet on the borders of Hautes-Alpes. Despite the distrust of the inhabitants, she is well decided to illuminate their obscure beliefs with her lights. As she blends into the life of the community, a sensual vertigo grows in her until the day when an avalanche engulfs a first mountain dweller …

The road movie Dreams in Nightmares portrayed the adventures of three quernaries who traveled the United States hoping to find the former lover of one of them, who disappeared from the radars.

TMDB

The films in the bath of the ladies of Margaux Fournier and do not wake up the child who sleeps from Kevin Aubert have also distinguished themselves by winning several prizes from the various jurys.

This list of Champs-Elysées Film Festival closes a 14th edition under the sign of diversity and eclecticism, managed to highlight the richness of independent cinema once again on the most beautiful avenue in the world.