Presented at the closing ceremony of the 29th Film Français Trophy Awards, the Unifrance Trophy, which honors the French-language film that attracted the highest number of spectators in theaters abroad in the previous year, was given this year to Around the World in 80 Days by Samuel Tourneux.
Following last year's winner Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma, the 11th Unifrance Trophy celebrates the animated film Around the World in 80 Days, a French production shot in the French language, which generated the highest attendance figures in theaters outside France in 2021.
This debut feature by Samuel Tourneux, produced by Cottonwood Media, STUDIOCANAL, and France 3 Cinéma, with international sales handled by STUDIOCANAL, has registered 762,917 admissions in international theaters to date, representing box office revenues of €3.7 million, from around forty territories around the world.
The Trophy was presented to Samuel Tourneux and his producer Zoé Carrera Allaix on February 1, 2022, during the Film Français Trophies awards ceremony.
About Samuel Tourneux, director:
After studying animation at the RUBIKA school in Valenciennes, Samuel Tourneux was hired by the BUF Compagnie, where he worked for four years on visual effects for a range of films and commercials, while at the same time developing his short film Même les pigeons vont au paradis, which was nominated at the Oscars in 2008. Since that time, he has dedicated himself exclusively to directing. His credits include numerous commercials, as well as TV series (Pat et Stan, Lego City Adventure), the attraction La Machine à voyager dans le temps des Lapins crétins for the Futuroscope amusement park, and three short films titled Minions, associated with the first opus of Despicable Me. In 2016, Tourneux and the producers David Michel and Zoé Carrera Allaix first began discussing the project for Around the World in 80 Days.
About Zoé Carrera Allaix, co-founder and managing director of Cottonwood Media:
Zoé Carrera Allaix was one of the building blocks of Marathon Media in the 2000s, where, early in her career, she served as the company's first Studio Head. At Marathon, she was instrumental in putting together the creative team and process behind Totally Spies!, as well as other series that achieved international success. She went on to work in the animated feature industry as she became a Production Director and Excecutive Producer at Mac Guff, working on well-known properties such as The Lorax, Kirikou, and Pat and Stan. She held the same role at Teamto, where she oversaw production for Yellowbird (2014).
