On the eve of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival and at the call of several collectives, more than a hundred actors, producers, technicians and members of associations linked to cinema, including Judith Godrèche, gathered, Monday May 13, in front of the headquarters of the National Cinema Center (CNC) in Paris. They are demanding the departure of its president, Dominique Boutonnat, who must be tried in June for sexual assault.
Mr. Boutonnat was reappointed in mid-2022 as head of the organization which oversees the 7e French art, despite his involvement in a case of sexual assault on his 21-year-old godson, accusations which he contests. The trial is scheduled for June 14 in Nanterre.
“Today we are witnessing a mobilization of the entire industry to address the issue of preventing and combating gender-based and sexual violence”declared to Agence France-Presse Fanny De Casimacker, general delegate of the Collectif 50/50, which campaigns for equality, parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry. “There is also a commission of inquiry voted by the Assembly [nationale] to support and see how to improve our practices. So it is completely inconsistent that, in this dynamic, at the presidency of the CNC there is still a person who is accused of sexual assault”she added.
A petition with some 1,600 signatures
She estimated that the number of demonstrators was “between 100 and 150”. According to images broadcast on the social network “Separate man from the CNC” ; a sign demanded a “End clap on the attackers”.
Present at this gathering, Judith Godrèche, who in recent months has become one of the spearheads of the #metoo movement in France, had already requested the departure of Mr. Boutonnat in February. In Cannes, she will present a short film, Me tooproduced with a thousand people victims of sexual violence who responded to his appeal on social networks.
To this gathering is added a petition launched on Sunday appellant “on the withdrawal of Dominique Boutonnat from the CNC”on the initiative of artists and technicians, members of the CGT-Spectacle and associations, including the Collectif 50/50, as well as on the initiative of “producers and other professionals outside unions and associations”. “If Dominique Boutonnat benefits from the presumption of innocence, it seems to us (…) essential that our main institution sets an example »write its authors, whose initiative had collected some 1,600 signatures by midday Monday.