QA few days after the announcement of Ibrahim Maalouf’s ouster from the Deauville festival jury, due to “unease within the team” linked to the #MeToo wave, The Point revealed that Maïwenn had in turn been ousted from the presidency of the jury. The director and actress had been chosen at the beginning of June by the former director of Public Système Cinéma Bruno Barde, dismissed from his duties following an investigation by Mediapart into accusations of harassment and sexual assault by seven female colleagues.
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According to Maïwenn, Bruno Barde’s successor, Aude Hesbert, has decided to “start from scratch” and not maintain the choices of her predecessor. Information that Aude Hesbert and her team deny. Exclusively, Maïwenn talks about her appointment in June and the difficult context of her ouster.
The Point: How did you come to be asked to be the president of the jury for the Deauville festival (which will take place from September 6 to 15, 2024)?
Maïwenn: I was contacted at the beginning of June by Bruno Barde, who offered me the presidency of the jury. It had been two months since I had buried my husband [Jean-Yves Le Fur, NDLR]I was in a situation of terrible grief, in the middle of moving, so far from work, far from people in the profession, and far from projecting myself in September. I did not expect to be offered such a role, so I hesitated because I wondered if I would be able to be emotionally capable of watching films, defending them, and leading a jury. I asked him several questions about the duties of a president such as: Should I speak in public? How many official dinners, how many red carpets, etc.? Because I am shy, reserved, and quite solitary, even more so since the death of my husband. Bruno Barde specified all the tasks that I had to accomplish, the dinner with the mayor, the speech at the opening, and at the closing… In short. He reassured me a lot.
I had ended up linking this presidency to something very intimate, like a lifeline.
Why did you decide to accept?
I accepted after several days because I told myself that I had to get back into life. Seeing American films in early September, in Normandy, seemed like a good start, I thought it would be easy. I love watching films. This year, I actually went to the Cannes Film Festival incognito to discover all the films in competition. I started at 8 o’clock in the morning; I saw three or four a day. I wanted and needed the films to tear me away from reality, to take me far from my grief. It’s creation that keeps me alive. Books and films. I ended up accepting Bruno Barde’s offer to try to get away from my grief. I finally took this offer as a boost. “Come on, get moving,” I told myself. This gave me a concrete project for the start of the school year, the prospect of beautiful September light, sunsets, exciting debates around surprising films… All at the Normandy Hotel, where I have many memories with my husband, where I filmed for My kingand where I had already chaired the Révélation jury about fifteen years ago. So I ended up linking this presidency to something very intimate, like a lifeline.
Had you started to compose your jury?
Yes, of course. Bruno Barde had told me that it was up to me to compose the jury and that I was free to make my choices. With the exception of Ibrahim Maalouf, who had already been chosen. I sent him my list of the “ideal” jury: Anamaria Vartolomei, Neige Sinno, Djanis Bouzyani, Ramzy, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Damien Bonnard, Jean-Bernard Marlin, Marjane Satrapi and IAM.
How did you learn of your eviction?
I used to talk to Bruno Barde from time to time about the composition of the jury. He had sent his request to Anamaria Vartolomei’s agent. Then, one day, he told me that he was fired and that his replacement [Aude Hesbert, NDLR] doesn’t want me. An hour later, my agent calls me and confirms it because the press officer had just announced to him “officially” that Aude Hesbert wanted to “start over from scratch”. This upset me, of course; it’s never nice to be rejected. But it didn’t keep me awake either. I have much more serious and deeper worries and things to think about than that at the moment.
Why react today?
Because a friend (who is, himself, glued to the news) sent me an article about the ouster of Ibrahim Maalouf. At first, I didn’t understand how he could still be on the jury since they had explained to my agent (Gregory Weil) that they wanted to start from scratch and compose a new jury. To me, they explained that they wanted to start from scratch, but him, they would have kept him to exclude him later? That is what, at first, led me to react to let it be known that I had also discreetly paid the price of this reorganization. And it is the reaction of the festival that leads me to respond today. Reading them, Ibrahim Maalouf would therefore have been chosen then ousted, but I would not have really been validated by the “team”. So I would have “imagined” my nomination? I would have dreamed all my exchanges with the previous management? Was I making it up when I contacted Anamaria Vartolomei’s agent to get her to join the jury? Maybe the mayor of Deauville, Philippe Augier, with whom I was supposed to have dinner, and Elsa Heizmann, the director of film relations for Chanel – which is the festival’s main partner and whom I have known for 25 years – also dreamed that I had been chosen?
What I do not understand, in such a context, is that they chose to oust a woman at the head of the jury to replace her with a man.
Do you think your ouster is linked to that of Ibrahim Maalouf?
Not at all. Ibrahim Maalouf had been chosen by the festival before I was even contacted. When the festival announced the complete overhaul of the jury, they did not mention him at all. What I do not understand, however, in such a context (the ousters of Bruno Barde and Ibrahim Maalouf were both announced as linked to their alleged behavior towards women), is that they chose to oust a woman at the head of the jury to replace her with a man. [Benoît Magimel, NDLR]. So I just want to set the record straight and for everyone to take responsibility. I think I have the right not to be treated like a Kleenex and not to be the victim of stories that I have nothing to do with. I also want, as an artist, for people not to forget that it is thanks to our films that there are festivals, that it is our films that the public comes to see. So it is not abnormal that we ask for a little clarity and respect.
Do you have a message for the festival management?
First of all, I wish my successor as head of the jury a lot of fun. To the festival leaders, I wish more frankness, clarity, tact, kindness, consistency and honesty in the future. I think they lacked it and that it is never too late to do the right thing.
