La Victorine studios in Nice -

ANP / 20 Minutes

  • The Victorine studios are film studios created in 1919 in Nice, where Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, or more recently Woody Allen, shot.

  • The École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière was founded in 1926 and is historically the second film school in the world.

  • With this impetus, the city aims to regain its place in the field, because despite a prestigious past, the studios have been struggling since the 2000s.

At the end of March, the city of Nice voted to set up the training courses of the Louis-Lumière school, historically the second cinema school in the world, in the legendary studios of the Victorine.

One way to "wake up this sleeping beauty", according to Henry Jean Servat, deputy mayor subdelegated to the cinema.

"These places must regain their former glory," launches the chosen one.

Our ambition is for the city to become once again the capital of cinema in France, in an overall policy, that is to say, with filming, hosting of actors, writing workshops.

Let us come to say to ourselves: Why dream of Hollywood when we have Nice?

"

Henry Jean Servat continues: “With these Louis-Lumière training courses, future great directors will get to know a territory, its light and its specificities.

We will thus make people want to come here to shoot.

A snowball effect will be created and Nice will be essential for the domain.

"

Promote the skills of the school in the region

For Méhdi Ait-Kacimi, communication and development director of the Louis-Lumière national high school, setting up training outside the Paris region is both “strategic and a story of encounters”.

He explains: “Our institution has been operating in this way for a century, it's good to start doing things differently.

This is the opportunity to develop the school's activities beyond the Ile-de-France area with complementary training on the Côte d'Azur.

Thus, the ENS Louis-Lumière can make its skills shine in this land of filming, which is very important for French cinema.

"

This establishment is also "a signal that we send to young people to announce that we are coming to them," says the communications director.

There is no longer any question of thinking that everything is happening in Paris and that we cannot succeed otherwise.

We hope that the public in the region will be interested and that we can quickly set up projects together.

The first assessment will be made within four or five years.

"

Places are still limited, 65 trainees will be able to benefit from training.

“We offer a qualitative offer, boasts Méhdi Ait-Kacimi.

Our promotions are small, which allows us to announce 100% insertion at the end of the course.

Everyone ends up working in their field, cinema, photography or sound.

"

Invent the culture of the future

The strategy therefore seems to be to reverse the trends: create future talent rather than wait for others to come.

In September 2022, around 20 places will be added to the ENS Louis-Lumière training courses for a master's degree in immersive creation in partnership with the Université Côte d'Azur.

Its president, Jeanick Brisswalter explains: “for four years, we have been in a dynamic of development, between research and innovation.

The cinema has a strong territorial positioning and the goal of the UCA is to make the link with these territories, in particular with Cannes and the center of our action with the Bastide rouge.

"

Thus, the UCA "does not set up" but "works with the emblematic studios of the Victorine".

In addition to the wealth of the sector, Jeanick Brisswalter wants to use the university's label of excellence for cinema: “We are going to invent the culture of the future and invent the cinema of tomorrow.

We are lucky to have one of the four artificial intelligence institutes in France.

This technology can generate creativity and in the field of cinema, be used in digital, with virtual reality for example.

"

Cinema

A new 3,000 m2 film set to bring the studios of La Victorine back to life 100 years later

Nice

Twenty personalities will help the city of Cannes to assert its cinema identity

  • Filming

  • French Riviera

  • Nice

  • Cinema

  • Training