NOUVELLES VAGUES - FONDATION BARRIÈRE GRANT 2026
NOUVELLES VAGUES - FONDATION BARRIÈRE GRANT 2026
NOUVELLES VAGUES Grant – Barrière Foundation for the Development of a First Feature Film
The NOUVELLES VAGUES – Fondation Barrière Grant is designed to support producer-filmmaker tandems in the development of their feature film projects, highlighting the themes and stories of new generations as well as the issues shaping the world of today and tomorrow.
Supporting first features and helping new voices emerge: this is the ambition of the grant.
Four projects have been selected by a committee of film industry professionals, made up this year of Roxane Arnold, Distribution Director at Pyramide; Gauthier Lovato, Manager Film France at Netflix; and Gustave Shaïmi, Head of Marketing and Promotion at Les Films du Losange.
Supported ahead of the Festival, the finalists will prepare their pitch with Agathe Berman, a “pitchologist”, who will also host the session.
Presented publicly, the projects will be submitted to a jury composed of Zoé Labasse, winner of the 2025 Grant, and four young people from the pass Culture programme, mentored by Alex Lutz, actor, director, stage director and patron of the Grant, and by Joy Desseigne-Barrière.
The winning project will receive a grant of €10,000.
WHO IS IT FOR?
A producer–filmmaker duo presenting a first live-action fiction feature film project, with majority French production, highlighting the concerns of new generations.
HOW TO APPLY?
→ Applications are now closed.
The Barrière Foundation, partner of the Biarritz Film Festival – Nouvelles Vagues
Created in 1999 at the initiative of Diane Barrière, the Barrière Foundation continues the Barrière Group’s long-standing commitment to culture and cinema. It embodies the Group’s dedication to knowledge transmission, the emergence of new talent, and support for contemporary creation.
The Foundation focuses entirely on cinema, with a strengthened ambition: to support projects from their development phase, often the most fragile and decisive stage of the creative process. This approach is notably reflected in the Barrière Foundation Film Award, which recognizes the entire value chain by honoring the director, producer, and distributor.
In the same spirit of support, the Barrière Foundation is a partner of the Biarritz Film Festival – Nouvelles Vagues and has created the Nouvelles Vagues – Barrière Foundation Grant, aimed at supporting the writing and development of original screenplays by emerging writers.
Through its actions, the Barrière Foundation expresses a strong conviction: to support projects capable of bringing forward new voices, shedding light on contemporary issues, and contributing in a lasting way to the influence of French cinema.
Learn more about the Barrière Foundation and its initiatives here.
NEWS FROM THE GRANT
THE 4 FINALISTS OF THE 2026 GRANT
LIFE IS A BEACH
Directed by: Guil Sela
Producers: Cérémonie, Noëlle Levenez and Clara Marquardt
Pitch: Charlie (27), an overthinking and awkward guy, arrives in Saint-Girons Plage, a timeless surfers’ village, to work as a lifeguard. The match isn’t an obvious one. But Mouhoub (55), his overbearing father, Lou (25), a restless surfer, and the randomness of life (99+) have other plans.
LA TEMPÊTE
Directed by: Victoria Lafaurie and Hector Albouker
Production: Odessa Productions, Igor Auzépy / Cinéfrance Studios, David Gauquié
Pitch: Lou, eighteen, studies piano and follows in the footsteps of her father Pierre, a renowned musician who teaches at the same conservatory. When Pierre is accused of rape by one of his students, their lives are upended and Lou’s certainties begin to crumble.
GRÂCE À JIM
Directed by: Déborah Lukumuena
Production: Douze Doigts Production, Camille Moulonguet
Pitch: Jim’s everyday life, a closed-off family man, is turned upside down when he takes in his younger sister Grâce, whom he hasn’t seen for four years. Living with bipolar disorder, she is entrusted to Jim by a psychiatric hospital. Jim’s “orderly” life and Grâce’s “troubled” one collide, creating upheavals they could never have imagined…
DRAMA QUEEN
Directed by: Mahaut Adam
Production: Les Films Norfolk, Marine Lepaulmier / Cérémonie, Noëlle Levenez and Clara Marquardt
Pitch: It’s summer. Sam joins her best friend Lola in the South of France to party and forget her problems. But the next morning, the two girls wake up with a massive hangover—and a dismembered corpse in their cooler…