Located in the heart of Cajun country, the annual eight-day Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival is an international juried film festival dedicated to presenting narrative, documentary, animated and experimental films and filmmakers with truly original voices in one of the friendliest, most unique cultures in the world. COTB is also committed to promoting both established and emerging filmmakers and the relationship-building that is crucial to their continued work.
Cinema on the Bayou, Louisiana's second oldest film festival, was founded in 2006 in Lafayette, Louisiana, by filmmaker Pat Mire after Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the New Orleans Film Festival in the fall of 2005. Pat was contacted by the National Film Board of Canada, which offered a U.S. premiere of the documentary MAROON, by famed Quebecois filmmaker Andre Gladu, which was originally scheduled to premiere in New Orleans. Cinema on the Bayou was launched in response, and Gladu and his film opened the inaugural Festival. Pat continues to serve as Artistic Director of the Festival.
Since 2006, Cinema on the Bayou has presented hundreds of internationally acclaimed documentary, narrative fiction, animated and experimental films, with filmmakers in attendance from across the United States and around the world. The Festival is now unique among film festivals in the U.S. in that it also regularly screens a large number of French-language independent films and presents filmmakers from throughout the Francophone world. The Festival also has the distinction among film festivals of having given the Audience Award to Moonbot Studio's animated film THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE one year before the film was nominated for and won an Academy Award in the animated short category.
In January 2024, the 19th Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival screened over 160 films from across the United States and from around the world, including 51 French-language films, over the course of the eight-day Festival. Filmmakers, actors, producers and other industry professionals were in attendance from Japan; Brazil; Australia; Canada, including Montreal, Moncton, Vancouver, Toronto and Gaspésie; and from across the United States, including Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Shreveport, New Orleans, Lafayette and Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and Iowa.
Cinema on the Bayou was selected as the Editors' Choice for "goings-on in the South and beyond" by Garden and Gun Magazine. Describing our Cajun Country setting as a "stew of French, Spanish, and African influences," the Editors concluded that it was an ideal spot for Cinema on the Bayou, an international film festival "charged with exposing attendees to the most original voices in film while fostering cultural exchange among the French-speaking peoples of the world."
Cinema on the Bayou also made the list of the Top 15 Winter Film Festivals in the U.S. by AudNews, an on-line magazine for filmmakers and film lovers.
Over the years, the Festival also has earned the respect of its many loyal filmmaker alums who come from around the world to share in the joie de vivre that defines the culture here. It says a lot about the festival that these highly talented independent filmmakers not only make repeat visits to Cinema on the Bayou, but also recommend the Festival to their filmmaker colleagues.
Cinema on the Bayou also has partnered with several independent film distribution companies and festivals in the United States, Canada, South America, Japan and Europe in order to facilitate relationships designed to provide opportunities for filmmakers to reach wider, more diverse audiences.
The Festival is committed to creating these essential connections amid exquisite Cajun cuisine, amazing local music performances, and thought-provoking discussions, both on expert panels and at after-hours parties, about all that is near and dear to that creature known as the independent filmmaker.
FILM CATEGORIES: Narrative Feature, Narrative Short, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Animated Short and Experimental Short.
SCREENING COMMITTEES AND JUDGES: The Festival screening committees include filmmaker alums, and the roster of judges regularly consists of both festival programmers and filmmaker alum award-winners from previous Festivals, including Olivier "Bill" Bilodeau, Wendell Riley, Bruce Allen, Andy Cope, Louise Lamarre, Melanie Carrier, Olivier Higgins, Helgi Piccinin, Shaan Couture, John Blouin, Edward Tyndall, and Bonnie Friedman.
AWARDS: The "goujon caille" (the spotted catfish -- Cajun culture's most prized catfish) award, by renowned artists Pat and Andre Juneau, is given in the following categories:
Director's Choice Special Jury Award
Le Train Bleu Award
Best Narrative Feature Award
Special Jury Award - Narrative Feature
Best Narrative Short Award
Special Jury Award - Narrative Short
Best Documentary Feature Award
Special Jury Award - Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short Award
Special Jury Award - Documentary Short
Best Animated Short Award
Special Jury Award - Animated Short
Best Experimental Short Award
Special Jury Award - Experimental Short
Inspiration Award
Audience Award
FESTIVAL PASSES AND LODGING: For all filmmakers whose films are accepted, Cinema on the Bayou offers two all-access passes for filmmakers in attendance and complimentary lodging for up to two nights per film for filmmakers traveling from outside the United States and for one night per film for filmmakers traveling from outside Louisiana. The Festival also offers reduced rates at the Festival hotel for filmmakers and their guests attending the Festival. Additionally, the Festival provides plenty of after-hours food and drink for our visiting filmmakers, including nightly after-parties at the "Cinema on the Bayou House." As Founder and Artistic Director Pat Mire likes to say, "we weigh them when they arrive and again when they leave, and I promise you, no one looses weight at Cinema on the Bayou!"
