06/28/2024 at 2:10 p.m.Updated 06/28/2024 at 2:14 p.m.
The president of the National Centre for Cinema (CNC), Dominique Boutonnat, was sentenced Friday by the Nanterre Criminal Court to three years in prison, one of which is firm. He announced his resignation.
A crisis at the head of French cinema. The president of the National Center for Cinema (CNC), Dominique Boutonnat, was sentenced Friday by the Nanterre Criminal Court to three years in prison, one of which was firm, for sexually assaulting his godson in August 2020. The court considered that the acts described at the hearing on June 14 went “particularly far in the context of a sexual assault.” Dominique Boutonnat will have to serve his one-year prison sentence at home with an electronic bracelet, he specified. In a press release, the latter announced his resignation from the presidency of the institution.
Mr. Boutonnat, who reaffirms his “innocence,” has decided to appeal this judgment, according to a message sent to CNC agents. Deciding “to cease exercising” his “functions as of today,” he “informed” Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, who entrusted “the interim presidency of the CNC to its current deputy general director, Olivier Henrard.”
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A troubled appointment
Author of a controversial report on the financing of the 7th art, this open support from Emmanuel Macron saw his appointment in 2019 be contested. “Once again the government has made a decision unilaterally without listening to a large majority of the sector which has a different vision (…). Opposing a liberal vision does not mean being anti-reformist,” thundered the Society of Film Directors (SRF), bringing together 300 filmmakers. Since his indictment in 2021, many voices have demanded his removal.
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