On Monday, December 11, Kering—through its Women in Motion initiative—and UniFrance paid tribute to Agnès Varda, the first female director in the history of cinema to have been awarded an Honorary Oscar, at a special evening event that brought together over 130 prominent figures from the movie, arts, and culture scenes.
The 135 guests present at the event included many leading movie industry personalities, such as Danièle Thompson, Isabelle Huppert, Robin Campillo, Jane Birkin, Tonie Marshall, Jacques Audiard, Michel Hazanavicius, Sabine Azéma, Louis Garrel, Rebecca Zlotowski, and Céline Sciamma. Also on the guest list were the composer Michel Legrand and his wife Macha Méril, the actor-director-composer Matthieu Chedid, the visual artist-photographer JR, and the visual artist Prune Nourry.
François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering was in attendance, along with Unifrance executive director Isabelle Giordano and our president Serge Toubiana. They were accompanied by the French Minister for Culture Françoise Nyssen, UNESCO director Audrey Azoulay, Frédéric Bonnaud, director general of La Cinémathèque Française, as well as Florence Gastaud, Jean Labadie, Melita Toscan Du Plantier, Elisha, Nathanaël Karmitz, and Sandrine Brauer.
Agnès Varda was accompanied by her daughter, the costume designer, artistic director, and producer Rosalie Varda, as well as her son, the actor and director Mathieu Demy, her grandson, the cinematographer Valentin Vignet, and his wife, the actor Déborah François.
Agnès Varda has participated in the Women in Motion initiative since it was launched by Kering in 2015, when she gave a candid talk about her work as a filmmaker and the challenges she has faced in her career. It was during this talk that she stated that "It is through gaining an understanding of our profession, through technical expertise, and through our own sensibilities, that we can make a difference—it's not because we are men or women."
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