In a press statement on July 24th the Ministry of Culture announced the new chairman of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Dominique Boutonnat, a French producer – the first time this job has been given to a film professional, not an administrator. M. Boutonnat will take over from Frédérique Bredin, whose second term ended on July 14th.
A graduate in law and history, Dominique Boutonnat is a producer with particular experience in financing film and audiovisual production. After working for 10 years for the insurance group Axa, he turned to producing feature films in 2005. He has helped nearly 250 very diverse films and audiovisual projects, such as Raoul Peck’s Le Jeune Karl Marx, Intouchables by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache and En liberté! by Pierre Salvadori.
Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, commented on this appointment: “over the past 15 years Dominique Boutonnat has developed huge expertise in financing film production, and his work on two successive Government committees has resulted in finding the solutions needed to mobilise all our national assets in a period marked by the growth of world-class platforms. His appointment as head of the CNC is a huge opportunity for financing film production and keeping France as a leading European player.”
Dominique Boutonnat replied: “Faced with the major upheavals facing the French film and broadcasting industries, it is a real honour to chair the CNC, consulting and working closely with professionals in every sector over the next few years to develop the means necessary for preserving, strengthening and developing our unique model which is envied all over the world, dedicated to creativity in all its diversity.”
Sources: http://www.culture.gouv.fr, https://www.cnc.fr, https://www.liberation.fr
