The film festival in Carpentras has been cancelled: the National Rally-led town hall has cut a subsidy granted for seven years.

The "Carpentras fait son cinéma" short film festival will not take place this year. Its organizers announced the cancellation of its seventh edition this Friday, after the new National Rally municipal council of the Vaucluse town decided not to renew the municipal subsidy the festival had received since its inception. The event, which was initially scheduled to run from April 28 to May 2 before being postponed, hosts film shoots each year, allowing residents to create eight-minute films showcasing their town. "The films that highlight our town have been screened at festivals worldwide and have won numerous awards," the association emphasized in its press release.

"We had to prioritize the subsidies": the mayor cites 86 million in debt

Mayor Hervé de Lépinau justified his decision by citing the town's financial situation: "In Carpentras, with €86 million in debt left by the previous left-wing administration, we no longer have the means to finance this type of association, and I regret that," he told AFP. "We had to prioritize the subsidies allocated, favoring sports clubs over these types of associations, which only have one event a year." He also defended his municipality's commitment to culture, mentioning the €5 million granted to the Inguimbertine library-museum. This decision is part of a broader trend: since the municipal elections of March 2026, several National Rally (RN) mayors have sparked controversy by canceling theatrical performances or reducing cultural budgets. In Carpentras itself, the municipal council had already voted in June to abolish the annual subsidy granted to the Family Planning Association, an association defending the right to contraception and abortion, which the mayor had accused of having become "a politicized and partisan body" and "an outpost of a controversial ideology, namely wokism".