Lucca Comics & Games 2025 French Kiss opened today, 29 OCTOBER 2025, with awards to two Frenchmen: Rébecca Dautremer, creator of the festival’s poster, and Luc Besson, a celebrated illustrator and director, because both, say organizers, embody “Liberty, Creativity & Diversity” and present works that marry well with the festival’s values of Community, Inclusion, Discovery, Respect, Gratitude.
Emanuel Vietina, director of Lucca Comics & Games, inducted Dautremer and Besson into Lucca Comics & Games Walk of Fame, creating tiles with their autographs and handprints that will become part of the festival’s future museum.
The title French Kiss not only acknowledges the impact of French comics creators, but it suits the festival, says Vietina, “because a kiss is an act of love that grows and transforms, a world of reciprocal inspiration, a quest for happiness that is shared collectively.”
Dautremer’s poster is one of twelve she created for the show “Six characters in search of a kiss” being exhibited at the Guinigi Tower. The characters depicted are duplicitous, at times strong and at times sensitive. She hopes the show teaches the passionate power and the seriousness of the kiss.
Besson wishes to express the depth of Dracula’s passion with his movie Dracula, the lost love. Explaining how struck he was by the protagonist’s willingness to wait 400 years to say goodbye to his wife, he says “It’s so romantic, I wanted to tell this story to show how love and comprehension are needed in the world.”
“Lucca Comics & Games è un ponte non solo fra Lucca e la Francia, ma fra Lucca ed il mondo. Genera sogni magia passione. Non crea un momento di anesthesia, ma un modo per apprendere quanto sono potenti l’amore, la fantasia e la felicità,” secondo il sindaco di Lucca Mario Pardini.
