Unifrance honors Melvil Poupaud with a French Cinema Award

19 JANUARY 2024

The honorary award was presented to actor Melvil Poupaud on January 18 at the Ministry of Culture by Unifrance President Gilles Pélisson and Executive Director Daniela Elstner, in the presence of Culture Minister Rachida Dati and CNC President Dominique Boutonnat.

Created in 2016 by Unifrance, the French Cinema Award (designed in 2018 by Maison Daum*) is intended to celebrate an international film industry figure who has worked to make French cinema resonate on the global stage.

At a ceremony held at the French Ministry of Culture, Culture Minister Rachida Dati, making one of her first public appearances since her recent appointment, expressed her passion for culture as a whole, and for cinema in particular. "For me, culture is a passing of the baton, and your profession," she told the audience, which was mainly made up of personalities linked to the world of cinema, "is not a profession, but a mission (...) and I hope that with you, culture will be a matter of passing the baton."

Gilles Pélisson, President of Unifrance, then reported on French cinema and audiovisual figures for 2023, in particular the 37 million admissions to movie theaters in 2023, and mentioned the cinema and audiovisual markets taking place at the same time in Paris as part of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, with over 1,000 people accredited.

He also extended his congratulations and thanks to the young directors and actors of the 2024 Unifrance 10 to Watch group (some of whom were present for the occasion) and to the international jury of MyFrenchFilmFestival, present in Paris for the launch of this event – entirely online – organized by Unifrance and dedicated to French-language cinema, whose fourteenth edition was launched on January 19.

Daniela Elstner for her part, took a look back at Melvil Poupaud's prolific and long career, underlining his loyalty, right from the start of it, to filmmakers such as Raoul Ruiz, François Ozon, and Éric Rohmer, and evoking his recent involvement in series, such as OVNI(s) or Pierre Schoeller's upcoming production In the Shadows. "You have always given of your time for the public, with generosity and a willingness to share your expertise, and above all a real taste for recounting again and again your film shoots, your experiences as an actor, the emotion generated by filmmaking and by films. Today, you are recognized not only in France, but also in Japan, the United States, Europe, and Latin America. You are a great French artist with an international soul."

In his humorous acceptance speech, Poupaud, surrounded by friends and family (including Yarol Poupaud, Chiara Mastroianni, Benjamin Biolay, Carine Tardieu, Valérie Donzelli, Lou De Laâge, Nicolas Pariser, Nicolas Saada, Pierre Schoeller, Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch, and designer Mathias Augustyniak) pointed out that he had recently realized that he had been working for 40 years, even though he was only 50. "Once again I've realized how lucky I am, I have no intention of stopping, and this award encourages me to continue on my path," he said. He then went on to talk about his early career, and in particular Raoul Ruiz's incredible productions in Portugal. "As a child actor, I said to myself, 'cinema is adventure,' and from this experience I developed a taste for travel, which I've never lost. I then seized every opportunity that presented itself, both for acting in films and for promoting my films. And that's where Unifrance came in, very early on in my career. I remember my first trip to Japan 30 years ago, I remember Daniel Toscan du Plantier, I remember the Sarasota Festival with the improbable American retired women festival-goers who loved French Cinema for a week. Then Russia, China, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Japan, again and always, New York with great memories, and Europe across its breadth. Unifrance, by sending me to the four corners of the world, enabled me to realize this dream in which cinema and adventure go hand in hand. For me, right from the start, I thought that an actor should not only be recognized in his own country, but that his choices and his films should find an echo abroad."

©Christophe Clovis / Unifrance

Announcement of the 10 to Watch 2024 and the launch of the 14th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival

The ceremony was also an opportunity to highlight the Unifrance 10 to Watch (10 talents selected by journalists from media specializing in cinema and whom Unifrance intends to promote internationally over the coming year) in the presence of some of the latter (Jean-Baptiste Durand, Iris Kaltenbäck, Sofia Alaoui, Souheila Yacoub, Stéphan Castang, Sofiane Zermani, and Raphaël Quenard).

©Christophe Clovis / Unifrance

To mark the opening of the 14th MyFrenchFilmFestival on January 19, a number of filmmakers and actors whose films are part of the selection were also present at the ceremony: Zita Hanrot (My Sole Desire), Bastien Milheau (Super Drunk), Nicolas Pariser (The Green Perfume), Arthur Thomas-Pavlowsky (La Lutte est une fin), Zoel Aeschbacher (Fairplay), David Arslanian, and Jules Ritmanic (Underdog).

As well as this year's international jury, comprising Faouzi Bensaïdi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Lillah Halla et Katell Quillévéré.
Marie Kreutzer, also a jury member, was unable to attend.

Below is a portfolio of the evening's highlights.

*Art is an expression of emotions, a universal language. It is, indeed, "meant to disturb," in the words of the artist Georges Braque. The vision of the Maison Daum is about awakening a reminiscence of ancestral art; it also expresses an abiding connection with the art scene, through over 400 collaborations with artists over the years (such as Armand, Braque, Dali, Mesnager, and Kongo, among others). The Maison Daum wishes, through the French Cinema Award, to offer a magical work representing the wings of a white crystal angel created by Jean Lamore, which serves as a veritable symbol of the pure emotion of aesthetic pleasure.