CNC: Rachida Dati’s cabinet director appointed president of the French cinema financial support organization

The question of the financing of French cinema is a burning subject and the CNC always the subject of political and media quarrels. He now has a new chef. Rachida Dati’s chief of staff, Gaëtan Bruel, was appointed on Wednesday as president of the National Cinema and Animated Image Center (CNC), the Ministry of Culture announced.

Dominique Boutonnat’s successor, who resigned in June 2024 after being sentenced to three years in prison for having sexually assaulted his godson, “will take office on Monday, February 17, 2025” for three years, the ministry said in a statement. The strategic chair of president of the CNC, which conducts public policies in the fields of cinema, audiovisual but also of video games, was occupied interim by the deputy director general Olivier Henrard.

The Minister also wants him to ensure “freedom of creation” and “territorial anchoring” of her policies, leads “a more offensive strategy for export” and ensures “the revival of education systems ‘Image, now weakened ”. The fight against sexual violence remains a priority.

The CNC brews more than 700 million euros

Among the concrete files that await Gaëtan Bruel, the threats of Canal +, the first financier of French cinema, to withdraw his marbles in the face of the rise of Disney + in the French production system or the recovery of the Cinémathèque, of which Management was pinned by the Court of Auditors.

Unique institution in the world, the CNC has the high hand on multiple sector assistance systems, the regulations and brews nearly 700 million euros in annual resources. He plays the role of guarantor of French “cultural exception”: these funds, largely from the recipes of blockbusters in theaters, aim to maintain a dynamic national production.

The President of the Republic, on the proposal of Rachida Dati, chose a political profile for the position: born in 1988, Gaëtan Bruel led the cabinet of the Minister of Culture, after experiences with Gabriel Attal to education or Jean-Yves Le Drian in Defense and Foreign Affairs. “Between 2019 and 2023, Gaëtan Bruel managed the cultural services of the French Embassy in the United States, including the promotion of French cinematographic, audiovisual, video game and digital creation in this country,” said the Ministry of Culture in its announcement press release.

“With Villa Albertine, he created in 2021 a tailor-made residence system, which has already benefited 250 creators, welcomed in fifty cities across the United States. With the active support of the CNC, he also installed in Hollywood a cell responsible for promoting the audiovisual attractiveness of France, “said the press release, insisting on his knowledge of the files.