Several directors, including Jacques Audiard, Cédric Klapisch and Pierre Salvadori, expressed their opposition on Wednesday to a reappointment of Dominique Boutonnat at the head of the National Center for Cinema and Image (CNC), considering his policy
"openly liberal and too often short-termist”
.
“It would be incomprehensible that the mandate [which comes to an end on July 24] of Dominique Boutonnat is renewed in a few days”
, estimates the board of directors of the Society of film directors (SRF) in a press release.
“While certain advances can be welcomed, such as the establishment of a third commission in advance of receipts, if exceptional aid was quickly released during the health crisis (of Covid-19), the foundations of the policy pursued over the past three years remain most alarming for independent cinema”
, underlines the SRF.
This association of filmmakers accuses Dominique Boutonnat, whose appointment three years ago by President Emmanuel Macron had shaken the world of the seventh art, of pursuing
"an openly liberal policy"
and of applying
"little by little to dismantle this powerful regulatory tool"
that is the CNC, the central institution for the financing of cinema.
"Thus we are witnessing the growing blurring of the boundaries between cinema and audiovisual, the redistribution of aid in favor of films already supported by the market, the multiplication, within the commissions, of performance and profitability criteria"
, deplores the collective.
No mention is made of the charges of sexual assault and attempted rape against Dominique Boutonnat.
In February, a year after his indictment, the SRF was moved that he was still in office.
“The president of the CNC has still not been suspended from his duties until the work of justice is completed.
A year later, we are therefore still wondering about the principle that our institutions intend to observe in this area, ”
questions the SRF again.
Questioned on this point at the beginning of June, the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak had estimated that
"the presumption of innocence prevails"
and welcomed the results of Dominique Boutonnat.
“He is the boss of a CNC which has faced the crisis and which, moreover, has been a pioneer in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence”
, she said then to the newspaper
Le Parisien
.