Bruel warned against attempts to dismantle a model that has helped make France a global cinema powerhouse. France’s National Film Board, the CNC, marked its 80th anniversary with a three-day gathering of industry leaders in Paris, including Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux who praised the country’s unique film funding system. CNC president Gaëtan Bruel, meanwhile, warned against attempts to dismantle a model that has helped make France a global cinema powerhouse.
The anniversary celebrations, held from Oct. 26-28 at the Cinémathèque française, came at a particularly fraught moment for the institution which faces growing political scrutiny and budgetary pressures as France heads toward the 2027 presidential election. Frémaux, who also heads the Institut Lumière in Lyon, highlighted the CNC’s key role on display across films showcased at Cannes and other major festivals. But you can see just how much French money, the CNC and French professionals are absolutely everywhere,” Frémaux said during an onstage conversation with film historian Antoine de Baecque at the French Cinémathèque on Wednesday.
Frémaux also pointed out the CNC’s support for film restoration, noting that countries around the world have begun developing similar initiatives. And not all masterpieces have been restored, so there is still plenty of work to be done. Many countries are now giving themselves the means to do this, following the French model,” he said.
Frémaux emphasized that France’s film funding system not only supports contemporary production but also helps preserve cinema’s history and nurture future generations of film lovers. It has taken a long time, but I’m starting to read things about it. Journalists are always a little slow,” he joked.
And that brings us back to the fundamental role of building an educational and intellectual foundation for cinephilia as a driving force in protecting contemporary creation.” The event wrapped with a forceful defense of the institution from Bruel, who took over as CNC president last year and is facing pressures from populist parties, including the far right party Rassemblement National. In its latest budget proposal, unveiled earlier this month, the party outlined plans to strip down the National Film Board, privatize public broadcasting and slash public broadcasting funding “We are going through, on a global scale, one of the deepest crises this sector has experienced since the invention of cinema,” Bruel said. They have been marked by successive upheavals.
But what we are experiencing today is as though we were facing the ocean head-on, as though the upheavals of eight decades were happening all at once.” Bruel also pointed to the industry’s shifting power dynamics, as streaming platforms are now facing new competition from YouTube. Today, faced with YouTube, they themselves are discovering their vulnerabilities, and they are seeking to converge with traditional broadcasters, a sign that yesterday’s world has not said its last word,” he said. For Bruel, these changes make the CNC’s mission more important than ever, particularly as public support for the arts faces increasing criticism.
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