During the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre, writer, showrunner, and director Noé Debré received a Deadline TV Disruptor Award, an international prize created in 2024 by the prestigious American online news site in recognition of the most outstanding talents in the world of international television.
Following in the footsteps of German showrunner Annette Hess, Noé Debré was the very first French artist to receive this distinction, which was presented at a ceremony at the Franciscaines in Deauville on September 4, during the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre.
Navigating between the world of TV series (he was the co-creator, co-writer, and co-director of Parliament, and today co-writer of Zorro, presented at the closing ceremony of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre) and that of auteur films (he was notably the co-writer of Jacques Audiard's Dheepan, Palme d'or in 2015), Debré is a young auteur who stands out for his precocious talent and his ability to work in all styles, genres, and formats, while tackling bold and complex subjects, such as the European institutions seen through the prism of comedy in Parliament.
Having collaborated as a writer with a number of prestigious filmmakers (including Michel Hazanavicius, Romain Gavras, Yvan Attal, Thomas Bidegain, and Tom Mccarthy), he has also directed his first feature film, the intimate slapstick comedy A Good Jewish Boy, released in France in early 2024.
Zorro, his next series, created with Benjamin Charbit and staring Jean Dujardin, Grégory Gadebois, André Dussollier, Audrey Dana, and Éric Elmosnino, is one of the most eagerly awaited programs of the year. Produced by Le Collectif 64, and rolling out on Paramount+ and France Télévisions, which is also the international distributor, it will be broadcast in France from September 6, as well as in Italy, the UK, Germany, and Latin America.
Noé Debré was present in Deauville to receive the award, where he gave a concise and powerful acceptance speech: ‘When I was told that I was going to receive the “Disruptor” award for French television, I wondered what the word “Disruptor” meant. I saw that it was a term used mainly in tech. When I thought about it, I realised that for the series that won me this award today, Parliament and Zorro, the first partners had always been public television. So, if we want more ‘Disruption’, we need more public television.’
