A planned settlement from the 1960s in Haute-Savoie, Avoriaz gained a strong identity in the popular imagination as an isolated, futuristic winter-sports resort made up of wooden towers and car-free streets thanks to the Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival, which fêted and promoted it from 1973 on. The Festival benefited from the advent of a new generation of filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, John Carpenter, George Miller, Luc Besson, David Cronenberg, James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven, and Peter Jackson. For two decades, it was a gateway for many fans, largely contributing to democratising the fantastic-movie genre in France.
Rich in archive material and interviews with the protagonists of the Fantastic Film Festival, this thesis explores the event’s marketing dynamics and analyses the circumstances that led to its decline. It is also an opportunity to question the Festival’s memory and legacy on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its launch, set for 2023.