La Roche-sur-Yon 2016: Kelly Reichardt, Pierre Bismuth, and Genre Cinema

The seventh edition of the Festival international du film de la Roche-sur-Yon took place in October 2016, directed by Paolo Moretti. The festival showcased independent American cinema alongside French retrospectives (Christophe Honoré, Noëmie Lvovsky, Bruno Podalydès). Key films included Kelly Reichardt's 'Certain Women' (starring Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Lily Gladstone), which explores women's struggles in Montana; Pierre Bismuth's 'Where is Rocky II?', a documentary about Ed Ruscha's lost rock sculpture; Babak Anvari's 'Under the Shadow', a horror film set during the Iran-Iraq War; and Keith Maitland's 'Tower', an animated documentary about the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. The festival maintained its focus on independent cinema, balancing genre conventions with artistic independence.