News

A French parliamentary investigation into sexual violence has condemned what it called “endemic” abuse in the country’s entertainment industry.

The damning report, details of which were released to French media ahead of the presentation to parliament on Wednesday, is calling for an overhaul in funding and regulations to protect vulnerable actors and minors on set.

“Moral, sexist, and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic, and persistent,” read a conclusion from French MP Sandrine Rousseau, who led the inquiry.

Some of France’s biggest stars, including Juliette Binoche, Jean Dujardin, and Pierre Niney, agreed to testify. The inquiry was launched last October in the wake of allegations by French actress Judith Godrèche who accused veteran directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot of raping her when she was 15 and called out the film industry’s inaction in the face of systematic abuse.

The findings follow last week’s...

In one of the most prominent #MeToo cases in the French film industry, director Christophe Ruggia has been found guilty of the sexual assault of Portrait of a Lady on Fire actress Adèle Haenel. Ruggia was given a two-year custodial sentence to be served under house arrest with an electronic bracelet and an additional two-year suspended sentence.

The prosecution had requested a five-year prison sentence with a three-year suspended sentence. Ruggia’s lawyers called the ruling “unjustified” and said they would appeal.

Haenel first went public with her sexual assault allegation against Ruggia in 2019 in an interview with French investigative website Mediapart. She accused the director of sexually assault and molestation over the course of three years, starting when she was 12 and he was 36, and Ruggia cast her in his 2001 feature The Devils. Haenel played the lead role in the film, a story of a brother and sister who turn to incest,...

French director Christophe Ruggia has been given a two-year custodial sentence under house arrest with an electronic bracelet with another two years suspended following a landmark trial in which he was found guilty of sexual assault accusations by actress Adèle Haenel.

The Paris prosecutor’s office had requested five years in prison, with three years suspended, following a turbulent two-day court hearing in early December.

The sentence comes six years after Haenel went public in 2019 with sexual assault accusations against Ruggia in an interview with investigative website Mediapart.

Haenel accused Ruggia of sexually assaulting and molesting her over the course of three years, beginning with the shoot of The Devils in 2001, when she was 12 and he was 36, and continuing into the promotional and festival tour.

Ruggia, who denied the accusations, suggested to the court that Haenel’s accusations were “revenge” because he had not made a second film with her,...

A Paris prosecutor has requested a five-year sentence for French film director Christophe Ruggia who is accused of sexually assaulting actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor.

The sentence, including three years suspended and two under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, was requested after a two-day hearing, that wrapped in Paris’ criminal court late Tuesday (December 10).

The trial has drawn widespread attention for being among the first #MeToo cases in French cinema that has gone to court.

It comes five years after Haenel spoke out against Ruggia, accusing him of grooming and sexual abuse when she was 12 and...

The trial of French director Christophe Ruggia, who is accused of sexually assaulting Portrait of a Lady on Fire actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, kicked off in Paris on Monday.

The two-day hearing comes five years after Haenel went public in 2019 with accusations against Ruggia in an interview with investigative website Mediapart, accusing him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager after he cast her in his 2002 feature The Devils.

She said Ruggia assaulted her over the course of three years, beginning with the shoot of the film in 2001, when she was 12 and he was 36, and continuing into the promotional and festival tour. Ruggia has denied the accusations.

Adèle Haenel supporters

Haenel arrived in court looking somber but determined. Female rights activists gathered outside, with placards bearing the slogan ‘Adele, On Te Croit’ (Adele We Believe you).

On taking to the stand for the first time, Ruggia...

Just hours ahead of his long-anticipated trial for sexual assault charges on Monday (October 28), Gerard Depardieu’s lawyer said the French actor would not attend due to health concerns and requested a delay in the proceedings.

The 75-year-old star of Cyrano De Bergerac and Green Card was expected at a Paris courthouse after being accused of sexual assault by two women during the 2021 film shoot for Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters (Les Volets Verts), one a set designer and the other an assistant director.

The trial was meant to begin at 1:30 Pm local time. Despite announcing on Friday...

Margaret Menegoz, who led iconic French film company Les Films du Losange for close to 50 years, producing the films of Éric Rohmer, Michael Haneke and Wim Wenders among others, has died at the age of 83.

The German and French film producer was born in Hungary in 1941. Her family, which was of German origin, was expelled from the country in the wake of the 1945 Siege of Budapest, and Menegoz grew up in Germany.

Menegoz entered the film industry as an editor and then connected with the French independent filmmaking scene via her documentarian husband Robert Menegoz, who she met at the Berlin Film Festival in the early 1970s.

She took the reins of Les Films du Losange in 1975, having been originally hired as an assistant on co-founder Rohmer’s 1976 German-language film Marquise Of O, co-starring Edith Clever and Bruno Ganz.

Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder had created the company in 1962, but with...

French media outlets are reporting that prosecutors have requested rape charges be brought against director Benoît Jacquot in connection to assault allegations made by actresses Isild Le Besco and Julia Roy.

Jacquot was taken into police custody on Monday for questioning on those allegations as well as assault charges brought by filmmaker Judith Godrèche. According to reports, prosecutors have not yet pressed for charges in connection to Godrèche’s charges. Jacquot has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Godrèche filed her complaint against Jacquot in February, shortly after she began speaking publicly about her relationship with the Farewell, My Queen director in the 1980s, which she says began when she was 14-years-old and he was 40. In the wake of Godrèche’s revelations, Roy filed a complaint for sexual assault against the director, and Le Besco filed a complaint for rape of a minor over 15 years old. The alleged assaults took place...

French prosecutors have requested director Benoît Jacquot be charged with the rape and sexual assault of several actresses, according to a Le Monde report.

Jacquot, 77, was held for questioning on Monday after filmmaker/actress Judith Godrèche filed a complaint alleging Jacquot raped her during a relationship that began when she was 14. The relationship lasted several years, Godrèche, now 52, said. Godrèche first went public with her allegations in an investigation Le Monde published in February 2024.

Le Besco, now 41, followed Godrèche’s complaint with one of her own, alleging Jacquot raped her during a relationship also began when she was a minor. Julia Roy, now 34, has also accused Jacquot of sexual assault; Jacquot has denied all accusations.

Prosecutors are currently seeking to charge Jacquot with crimes against Le Besco and Roy, but not Godrèche.

In addition to her complaint against Jacquot for “predation” and “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old...

Film director Benoit Jacquot is set to face trial after French prosecutors requested rape charges, according to reports in France.

Doillon was taken into custody in Paris alongside fellow French filmmaker Jacques Doillon earlier this week following allegations they both sexually assaulted actor Judith Godrèche as a child.

Godrèche alleges that Jacquot raped her in 1986, when she was 14, while Doillon sexually assaulted her on set.

Both men have denied the claims.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, prosecutors have requested charges against Jacquot relating to the rape of two other actors. One of the actors alleges the rape occurred between 1998 and 2000 and in 2007 during a relationship that began with the director when she was underage while the other actor has accused him of sexually assaulting her between 2013 and 2018. Jacquot has denied the claims.

However prosecutors have not requested charges in relation to Godreche’s allegations as yet, the newspaper reported.

Both men deny claims by actor Judith Godrèche, who has formally accused them of abusing her as a teenager

French authorities detained leading film directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon on Monday for questioning over accusations of sexual abuse, sources close to the case said.

An Afp journalist saw both men, who have denied the allegations, arrive at a police station in Paris on Monday morning, accompanied by their lawyers.

French filmmakers Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon have been placed into police custody stemming from charges of sexual assault by actresses including Judith Godrèche earlier this year.

The filmmakers were taken in for questioning on Monday morning (July 1) by France’s Juvenile Protection Brigade at Paris’ Regional Criminal Investigation Department (Drpj).

In February, Godrèche accused Jacquot and then Doillon of the rape of a minor, which has led to the investigation by the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

Both filmmakers continue to contest the charges. Jacquot’s lawyer Julia Minkowski told local press the filmmaker “will finally be able to...

French directors Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon (“The Little Gangster”) were summoned by police on July 1 for questioning in connection with complaints filed by actor Judith Godreche on Feb. 8.

The two directors were taken in custody by the Juvenile Protection Brigade, according to the Afp.

Godrèche lodged a rape complaint against Jacquot and accused him of “predation” and “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old committed by a person in authority.” She met Jacquot in 1986, when she was 14 years old (the director was then 39) on the set of his movie “Les Mendiants,” and began a relationship with him which went on for six years. She also starred in his 1990 film “La Desenchantée.” The offences were alleged to have taken place between 1986 and 1992. Jacquot has denied all of Godrèche’s accusations.

The director’s attorney, Julia Minkowski, told Variety that Benoît Jacquot “had requested to be heard since the beginning of the investigation.

French police have taken directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon into questioning on accusations of sexual assault made against them by actress and activist Judith Godrèche.

Godrèche filed official complaints against Jacquot and Doillon in February, accusing both men of sexual assault in alleged incidents decades ago, when she was a teenager. She accused Jacquot of raping her in 1986, when she was 14, and of subsequent offenses in a romantic relationship which lasted into the 1990s. She has accused Doillon of sexually assaulting her during the filming of his 1989 feature The 15-Year-Old Girl, in which she starred. Both men deny the allegations.

French media on Monday reported that both men had been taken into custody and were being questioned by the Paris branch of France’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors.

When Godrèche went public with the allegations, it helped reignite France’s #MeToo movement. The filmmaker, a former teen idol,...

French directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon have been taken into police custody for questioning on accusations of sexual assault made against them by actress and director Judith Godrèche.

French media reported that both men were being questioned by the Paris branch of France’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors.

Godrèche unleashed a fresh MeToo wave in France this year after she decided to speak out about her own experiences of sexual abuse within the French cinema world as a teenager.

She filed official complaints against Jacquot and Doillon in February.

The actress and director was in a relationship with Jacquot in the late 1980s, which she says began when she was only 14 years old and he was 40.

Godrèche now condemns the relationship, saying she was under Jacquot’s control, and filed a complaint of “rape with constraint” against him in February.

At the same time, she also filed a complaint against Doillon,...

Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the National Film Board, France’s most powerful film institution, has received a three-year prison sentence, including two suspended, over sexual assault charges.

Boutonnat has stepped down from the Cnc in the wake of the verdict on June 28 and is being replaced by Olivier Henrard, Variety has confirmed.

The judge’s ruling appears stronger than the initial recommandation of the Paris prosecutor, who had requested a three-year suspended prison sentence on June 14. Boutonnat is expected to live under house arrest with an electronic bracelet for one year, according to local reports.

Boutonnat was indicted in February 2021 for the alleged sexual assault of his then 19-year-old godson in August 2020, during a vacation in Greece. But in spite of the indictment, Boutonnat was re-upped by the French government in 2022 and served a second mandate which was meant to end next year.

Having previously denied all accusations, Boutonnat...

Beloved French actor Isabelle Huppert will receive the Lumière Award in the city of Lyon in October.

Created by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, the Lumière Film Festival celebrates classic and contemporary cinema each fall. The Lumière Award honors a leading figure in the world of cinema and their entire body of work.

Huppert succeeds German director Wim Wenders who was awarded the prize in 2023. Former recipients include Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Pedro Almodóvar, Miloš Forman, the Dardenne brothers and Wong Kar-wai, among others.

“It’s a great honor for me to receive the Lumière Award. It’s a magnificent prize, and so is its festival. It’s an award that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it fills me with joy and pride,” said Huppert.

A prolific actor who shoots an average...

Trialed for alleged sexual assault on June 14, Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the National Film Board, France’s most powerful film institution, is facing a three-year suspended prison sentence.

Boutonnat was indicted in February 2021 for the alleged sexual assault of his then 19-year-old godson in August 2020, during a vacation in Greece. On Friday, at the Nanterre courthouse, the prosecutor requested a three-year suspended prison sentence against Boutonnat who is currently service a second mandate as president of the Cnc. He was re-upped by the French government in 2022 in spite of the fact that he had been indicted on sexual assault charges a year prior. He has denied all accusations. The Cnc said in a statement sent to Variety that the “allegations concern the private sphere and have nothing to do with the Cnc’s activities whose functioning were not affected by the undertaking of the judicial procedure.”

The film executive,...

On the second night of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Judith Godrèche told the mostly female crowd assembled on a beach next to the Palais, “This film is for you!” The French actor-director was presenting her short “Moi Aussi,” a last-minute addition to the festival lineup that covers sexual misconduct in the French film industry. Godrèche has become something of an ambassador to the fledgling movement after she came forward in February with claims that she was preyed upon and groomed as a minor by directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, allegations they both deny. The beach screening kicked off what many hope will be a sweeping French #MeToo reckoning.

But the festival and its accompanying film market also will feature several men who have been the subject of #MeToo allegations that range from sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence. The awkward presence of such actors as Shia Labeouf and James Franco,...

Léa Seydoux addressed France’s growing #MeToo movement at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Quentin Dupieux’s comedy “The Second Act,” which opened the fest on Tuesday night.

“It’s a wonderful thing that women are now speaking out. Things are clearly changing and it was high time it did,” she said. “I have the impression that this change has indeed taken place. The film also plays with this idea, it also talks about very current events and this movement, where women are now speaking out, and that was of fundamental importance for this change to take place.”

Seydoux continued, “#MeToo is very important. It’s a very serious issue. However, I think it is also necessary to be able to talk about it with humor. In the film, this is highlighted in a very funny way.”

Addressing the impact of #MeToo on the way actresses are treated on set,...

Judith Godrèche has been a regular on the Cannes red carpet for close to 30 years for her performances in films such as Patrice Leconte’s 1996 Palme d’Or contender Ridicule and Un Certain Regard cycling drama The Climb in 2019.

The popular French actress-turned-director touches down this edition with a work of her own: the short film Moi Aussi.

Shot under the radar in Paris in March and gathering 1,000 victims of sexual abuse, the work world premieres as part of the opening ceremony of Cannes Un Certain Regard on Wednesday.

Related: Cannes Film Festival 2024 In Photos: Opening Ceremony & ‘The Second Act’ World Premiere

There is no bigger disruptive force in French cinema right now than Godrèche, who has been at the forefront of triggering a new era of #MeToo in France, a country that has been notoriously slow to tackle sexism, sexual violence and harassment.

The short film follows in the...

Thierry Fremaux addressed France’s #MeToo reckoning during a press conference on the eve of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Following rumors that the French outlet Mediapart is putting together a bombshell report to publish during Cannes with several new #MeToo allegations, there has been much speculation regarding how it will impact the festival.

Alluding to the massive backlash last year over the selection of Maiwenn’s Johnny Depp movie “Jeanne du Barry” on opening night, Fremaux suggested he and Cannes president Iris Knobloch ensured the 77th edition wouldn’t include any obvious red flags, and said the ongoing “polemics” had nothing to do with the festival.

“Last year, as you know, we had a few polemics, and we realized it, and so this year we decided to host a festival without polemics to make sure that the main interest for us all to be here is cinema,” Fremaux said.

The April 25 decision by the New York Court of Appeals to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s felony sex crime conviction looked like a major blow to the #MeToo movement in the U.S. and to the progress made within the U.S. film industry since 2017 (when the first allegations against Weinstein were made public).

In France, they are still waiting for that first wave of progress. The outrage triggered by #MeToo echoed across la grande nation — it even spawned a French counterpart, #Balancetonporc, or “Expose Your Pig” — but, until very recently, efforts to challenge the structure of the French entertainment industry came to very little.

That, it seems, is changing. U.S.-style measures, including the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes or chaperones to supervise the treatment of minors, are slowly becoming standard practice on French movie sets. #MeToo is “really at the center of our discussion now, in...

Moi Aussi Photo: © Maneki Films A surprise last minute addition has been added to the Cannes Film Festival’s roster with the inclusion of a short film directed by actress Judith Godrèche who recently has called out sexual harassment, claiming that she had been the victim as a minor of grooming by directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon. Both have denied the allegations of sexual assault.

The film Moi Aussi (Me Too) will be screened at the Un Certain Regard opening ceremony in the Salle Debussy of the Palais des Festivals and at the Cinéma de la Plage, with free admission, on May 15.

Judith Godrèche Photo: UniFrance Godrèche who has appeared in more than 50 films, aims to highlight the stories of victims of sexual violence. The festival organisers in a statement said: "These individual experiences add to her own, underscoring their sadly universal nature. The Festival de Cannes thus wishes...

Judith Godrèche’s short film Moi Aussi (Me Too) that pays tribute to victims of sexual violence will world premiere in official selection at Cannes, as part of the Un Certain Regard Opening Ceremony on May 15.

The ensemble film is written and directed by Godrèche and produced by Didar Dommeri of Maneki Films. It is made up of personal accounts told in fragments that unites around 1,000 people after Godrèche posted a call to action for victims of sexual assault on social media

The festival said it will showcase the film that highlights victims of sexual violence because “these individual experiences add to her own,...

A week before its kick-off, the Cannes Film Festival has made a last-minute addition with “Moi Aussi,” a short film directed by Judith Godreche.

The actor-turned-filmmaker made headlines in recent months for spearheading France’s new MeToo reckoning with her revelations that she had been preyed upon and groomed as a minor by directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon. Both directors have denied her allegations of sexual assault.

Godreche’s testimony has also led the French parliament to approve the creation of a commission whose task is to investigate abuse and sexual violence within France’s film and TV industry, as well as performing arts, advertising and fashion.

In her short film “Moi Aussi,” Godreche highlights the stories of victims of sexual violence. “These individual experiences add to her own, underscoring their sadly universal nature. The Festival de Cannes thus wishes to give resonance to these personal accounts,” said the festival in a statement.

This February, French actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche helped ignite a new spark in her country’s #MeToo reckoning. Early in the month, the lauded star filed two different rape complaints against a pair of French directors: first, against Benoît Jacquot, for “predation” and “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old committed by a person in authority” (via Variety), the second, against Jacques Doillon, alleging he raped her twice when she was 15 and starring in his “La fille de 15 ans” (via Variety).

By February 22, Variety reported on the rising reckoning, partially due to Godrèche’s new allegations, noting that “France’s major producers guilds have also issued a statement demanding the National Film Board (Cnc) and the Minister of Culture to put specific guidelines in place.” And, one day later, Godrèche appeared at France’s Césars ceremony to deliver a speech to encourage people, particularly those inside the entertainment industry,...

Last year, the Cannes Film Festival shrugged off protests by women’s rights groups to open with Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, a period movie starring alleged abuser Johnny Depp as the king of France.

A year and a mini-#MeToo revolution later, Cannes has picked Moi Aussi (Me Too), a short film by French actress turned activist and filmmaker Judith Godrèche to open its Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Best known in the U.S. for the Oscar-nominated Ridicule (1996) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Godrèche became a key figure in France’s #MeToo movement after she accused acclaimed directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Both men have denied the claims.

The allegations, and Godrèche’s standing as one of France’s best-known actresses and a beloved former child star, helped bring #MeToo back into the spotlight in France. Her...

The French parliament has approved the creation of a commission of inquiry to investigate abuse and sexual violence in the country’s cinema and audiovisual industries as well as the worlds of the performing arts, advertizing and fashion.

The initiative follows a request by actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche, who has spearheaded a fresh #MeToo wave in France in recent months, following her decision to go public with allegations of sexual assault against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, which they have denied.

Godrèche pushed for the creation of a commission of inquiry in February and then again in March in separate addresses to the French Senate and parliament, at the invitation of their delegations for women’s rights and children’s rights.

Francesca Pasquini, who is a member of parliament for The Ecologists party, acted on Godrèche’s request to set in motion a proposal to create the commission.

More than 100 men working in the French film world have written an open letter in support of the #MeToo movement.

Signatories include filmmakers Jacques Audiard, Abderrahmane Sissako, Cyril Dion, Eric Lartigau, and Emmanuel Mouret, alongside actors such as Mathieu Amalric, Anatomy Of A Fall’s Swann Arlaud, and Reda Kateb.

France Televisions’ head of cinema Manuel Alduy, producer Marc Missonnier, and designer Christian Lacroix have also added ther names.

The letter, spearheaded by actress Anouk Grinberg’s husband and mathematician Michel Broué and published on Elle magazine’s website, stated “it is revolting that theatre and cinema should be used...

More than 100 men working in the French film world have written an open letter in support of the #MeToo movement.

Signatories include filmmakers Jacques Audiard, Abderrahmane Sissako, Cyril Dion, Eric Lartigau, and Emmanuel Mouret, alongside actors such as Mathieu Amalric, Anatomy Of A Fall’s Swann Arlaud, and Reda Kateb.

France Televisions’ head of cinema Manuel Alduy, producer Marc Missonnier, and designer Christian Lacroix have also added ther names.

The letter, spearheaded by actress Anouk Grinberg’s husband and mathematician Michel Broué and published on Elle magazine’s website, stated “it is revolting that theatre and cinema should be used...

Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the National Film Board (Cnc), the country’s most powerful film institution, will stand trial for alleged sexual assault starting on June 14, Variety has confirmed.

Boutonnat was indicted in February 2021 for the alleged sexual assault of his 22-year-old godson in 2020. It took over two years for the Nanterre Court to set a start date for the trial, which will kick off after the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The information was first reported by the online publication “L’Informé.”

When contacted by Variety, the Cnc declined to comment. It’s unknown whether Boutonnat, whose term ends in 2025, will remain in post during the trial.

The National Film Board plays a crucial role in allocating subsidies to French TV and film producers, establishing selection committees and boards, as well as setting guidelines for the whole industry.

In spite of the indictment, Boutonnat was appointed...

French director Claire Denis is set to return to West Africa for her next feature film, an adaptation of late French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’s 1980 work Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens).

“It’s a play written by a friend of mine a long time ago and directed by Patrice Chéreau on stage in the 80s. He was dying from AIDS and he wanted me to make a film out of it,” Denis told Deadline on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar.

She is planning to film in either Senegal or Cameroon.

Denis grew up in West Africa and set a number of her early films in the region, such as Chocolat (1988) and Beau Travail (1989). This will be her first major fiction feature shot on the African continent since the 2009 drama White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation...

Exclusive: Judith Godrèche is burning down the house. Her hope is that something better will emerge from the ashes.

In recent weeks, the French actress and director, a three-time César nominee known for starring in English and French-language hits including The Man In The Iron Mask, The Spanish Apartment and Potiche, has taken a match to a culture of silence and denial within France’s cinema world when it comes to sexual abuse. In her first trade interview, she talks to Deadline about her experiences, the motivation behind her campaign and what she hopes to achieve.

At the heart of Godrèche’s mission is the relationship she had with director Benoît Jacquot in the late 1980s, which began when she was only 14 years old, and he was 39. The minimum age of consent in France is 15.

Godrèche, now 51, lived with Jacquot for six years and appeared in his films The Beggars and The Disenchanted,...

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries “The Staircase,” has once again struck a chord with “Samber,” a limited series about a French serial rapist that explores the damages of sexual violence against women and children.

“Samber,” a six-part thriller series directed by de Lestrade, charts the true case of Dino Scala, a seemingly ordinary family man who sexually assaulted and raped more than 50 women and minors over three decades in Northeastern France. In spite of several victims filing complaints, Scala was able to slip through the cracks of France’s judicial system and benefited from a complacent stance toward sexual abuses. He was eventually arrested in February 2018 and found guilty of 17 rapes, 12 attempted rapes and 27 sexual assaults or attempts. In June 2022, Scala was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Represented in international markets by Federation Studios, the six-part series has captured the zeitgeist in France, which is undergoing a...

Anatomy Of A Fall was named best French film of the year at the 49th annual César awards, among six prizes for Justine Triet’s film during an evening dominated by female solidarity that saw actress Judith Godrèche set the tone with a #MeToo-motivated speech.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Anatomy Of A Fall also earned prizes for best director for Triet, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best original screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari, best supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and best editing for Laurent Senechal.

Triet’s best director prize made her the first female filmmaker...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall won Best Film and Best Director at the 49th edition of the French César awards Friday.

Triet is only the second women to clinch the Best Director prize in the near 50-year history of the César Awards, after Tonie Marshall for Venus Beauty in 1976.

The director took to the stage with her producers Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelléas.

Luciani suggested the Best Film honor, which is voted on by the some 4,600 members of the César Academy, was a sign of solidarity for the film and Triet in the light of her controversial Cannes d’Or acceptance speech which provoked a political backlash after she criticized the attitude of Emmanuel Macron’s government towards culture and cinema.

“After Justine’s speech in Cannes and the lively debate she provoked we’d like to say this...

Actress and director Judith Godrèche made an appeal at the French César Awards on Friday for a new era of truth around the issue of sexual abuse and harassment in France’s cinema world after decades of silence and denial.

“For some time now, voices have been unleashed, the idealized image of our fathers has been shattered, power almost seems to be in a state of turmoil, could it be possible for us to look at the truth in the eye?,” she said in scheduled address.

“To take on our responsibilities? To be actors, actresses of a world that is questioning itself?, “ she asked. “For some time now, I’ve been talking and talking, but I can’t hear you, or only a little. Where are you? What are you saying? A whisper. Half a word.”

Her appearance at the César ceremony comes three weeks after the actress filed an...

Justine Triet became the second female filmmaker in the Cesar Award’s 49-year history to win the best director trophy for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which also won best film, original screenplay, actress for Sandra Huller, supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and editing at the French film industry’s big night. Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” also dominated the race, picking up a raft of prizes, including cinematography, costumes, visual effects and music. The ceremony unfolded at the Olympia Theater in Paris on Friday evening and aired lived on Canal+.

Triet’s movie, which is vying for five Oscars, stars Hüller as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband at their remote chalet. The movie is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelleas.

Triet dedicated her best film award to all women,...

France’s film industry is undergoing a new MeToo reckoning, dominating news cycles, policy debates and even the goodie bag of the Cesar Awards’ nominees dinner, which included a flyer headlined, “The cultural sector together against sexist and sexual violence.”

The French #MeToo movement also made its way into the Berlinale, where actor Nora Hamzawi said that director Jacques Doillon’s upcoming film “Third Grade” — in which Hamzawi stars — shouldn’t be released due to the sexual misconduct allegations recently filed against the filmmkaker.

France’s major producers guilds have also issued a statement demanding the National Film Board (Cnc) and the Minister of Culture to put specific guidelines in place. Those demands include the appointment of “experts specialized in the prevention and management of sexual violence to set up a safe environment at the start of every shoot;” additional resources for organizations fighting sexual misconduct; and setting up an...

It was never Suzy Bemba’s plan to become a professional actress. This year’s European Shooting Star from France had dabbled in performance — “10 years of ballet, maybe six years of singing classes,” she recalls. After a knee injury made it impossible to keep dancing, she switched to acting as “a new way of expression” and started trying out for open auditions, driving with her mother the two and half hours into Paris from their home in the French countryside. Her mother sent out inquiries to French talent agencies, and one agreed to sign Bemba after she graduated high school.

But when Bemba graduated, acting was the last thing on her mind. “I wanted to go to med school, that was always the dream, so when I graduated, that’s what I did,” she says. “I kind of forgot about the idea of acting.”

It was only after her freshman...

"The New Look" on Apple TV+ explores the rivalry between Christian Dior and Coco Chanel after World War II's end. The series follows Dior's rise to fame and his impact on women's fashion, revolutionizing Paris as a fashion capital. The star-studded cast includes Ben Mendelsohn, Juliette Binoche, Maisie Williams, and John Malkovich.

Apple TV+’s The New Look chronicles iconic French fashion designer Christian Dior’s rise to fame following World War II and his rivalry with the legendary Coco Chanel. The Apple TV+ series is named after his first fashion collection, which was launched in 1947, three years after France was liberated from Nazi occupation. The first few episodes of The New Look focus on the four years of occupation and the different approaches Coco and Christian took to their work and survival at the time.

The New Look was created by Todd A. Kessler, best known for his work on The Sopranos.

French actresss Judith Godrèche has filed an official police complaint against Jacques Doillon, accusing him of two counts of sexual assault in the 1980s when she was a minor.

News of the complaint came just one day after Godrèche revealed in an interview with Le Monde newspaper she had filed a complaint against director Benoît Jacquot for “rapes with violence of a minor less than 15-years-old”.

The Paris Prosecutor’s office has since confirmed to Deadline that a case has been opened.

Godrèche, who is now 51, lived with Jacquot for six years and appeared in his films The Beggars and The Disenchanted, before leaving him in her early 20s.

The actress says she was 14-years-old when the relationship began while the director was 40 and that she was “under his influence”. Jacquot has denied the accusations saying they were in a “loving” relationship.

The actress publicly made the accusations against Doillon...

Judith Godrèche, the French actor-turned-filmmaker who recently delivered the semi-autobiographical series “Icon of French Cinema,” has filed a complaint against director Jacques Doillon alleging rape, Variety has confirmed.

Godrèche filed the complaint on Feb. 6, the same day that she filed one against director Benoit Jacquot.

Interviewed by the local radio station France Inter, Godrèche alleged that she was raped twice by Doillon when she was 15 in the late 1980s. She claimed the sexual assault happened at the home that Doillon shared with his then partner Jane Birkin, during the shoot of “La fille de 15 ans.” Godrèche, who was at the time in a relationship with Jacquot, had the lead role in Doillon’s film and starred alongside Melvil Poupaud and Doillon himself. The movie came out in 1989.

“It was hallucinating. He got rid of the actor and took his place and all of the sudden he decided that there...

Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg made a moving presentation of her documentary Jane By Charlotte, capturing her complex relationship with her late mother Jane Birkin, ahead of a screening at the Lumière Film Festival on Saturday.

The documentary is playing as part of a tribute to iconic UK-French actress and singer Birkin, who died on July 16 at the age of 76.

Sparked by Gainsbourg’s desire to get closer to her mother amid a sense that time was running out, the film follows Birkin on tour in Japan, at her beloved Breton home and also on a visit to the untouched Paris mansion she once shared with Serge Gainsbourg.

“I haven’t yet dared to take on board what this film will mean in my eyes in the future. I miss her so much that I am not formulating anything yet,” a visibly moved Gainsbourg told a packed cinema in Lyon.

“But I...

French multi-hyphenate Lou Doillon, who is Jane Birkin’s daughter, is set to star in Italian comedy “Quasi a casa” directed by Carolina Pavone, a former assistant director on several Nanni Moretti films.

Shooting is underway in Rome on the sophisticated comedy, in which Doillon — a model, actor and singer-songwriter, like her half-sister Charlotte Gainsbourg — plays an eclectic, successful singer who strikes up a turbulent friendship with a younger female musician who idolizes her.

Doillon became a French fashion icon in her teens after working with famed atelier Givenchy and is currently the testimonial of Cartier’s new Baignoire watchmaking collection. The Parisian star first acted in Italy in Abel Ferrara’s “Go Go Tales” and more recently appeared in French director Maïween’s “Polisse” and in “A Child of Yours” directed by her father, Jacques Doillon.

Pavone is a promising young helmer who has worked with Moretti on “My Mother” and “Three Floors,...

“Vogter,” a psychological thriller directed by Gustav Möller, whose previous film “The Guilty” won the Audience Award at Sundance, has been pre-sold by Les Films du Losange to multiple territories.

“Vogter,” which was just completed and is now in post, has been picked up for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Japan (Happinet Phantom Studios), Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg (Cineart), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris) and Hungary (Vertigo). Les Films du Losange has closed these deals since unveiling the project at Cannes and is negotiating further sales in other key territories.

The film is headlined by Sidse Babett Knudsen, the BAFTA-winning actor of “Borgen,” as Eva, an idealistic prison officer, is faced with the dilemma of her life when a young man from her past gets transferred to the prison where she works. Without revealing her secret, Eva asks to be moved to the young man...

Jane Birkin graced the front pages of most French newspapers on Monday as France mourned the death of the late British actress and singer who enjoyed icon status in the country that she had called home since the late 1960s.

“Our tears can’t change anything,” proclaimed Le Parisien newspaper, which first broke the news of Birkin’s death at the age of 76 on Sunday.

Libération ran with the simple headline “Without Jane”, while regional newspaper Le Maine Libre referred to the late actress as “The Eternal English Bride of France”.

International obituaries have highlighted Birkin’s notorious performance with partner and late bad boy of French pop music Serge Gainsbourg on the 1968 pop song, ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, or the fact she inspired the Hermès Birkin bag.

For the French, she was much more.

In a six-page tribute, Libération mused over the reasons for Birkin’s never-ending...

Jane Birkin, the British-French actress, singer, and style icon who inspired the eponymous Hermès Birkin handbag, has died at the age of 76.

According to Le Parisien, the iconic singer-actress was found dead at her home in Paris on Sunday. No further details have been shared at this time. Birkin had canceled a series of performances in Paris scheduled earlier this year for health reasons. She was previously diagnosed with leukemia in 2002 and suffered from a minor stroke in 2021.

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in Marylebone, London on December 14th, 1946. Raised in Chelsea with her brother, screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin, she audition for small acting parts before marrying composer John Barry in 1965 and giving birth to her first child, the late photographer Kate Barry, in 1967. In the meantime, she landed breakthrough roles in 1966’s Blow-Up and Kaleidoscope as well as 1968’s Wonderwall.

Birkin and Barry divorced in 1968, and the actress moved to Paris,...

Jane Birkin, the British-French actress, singer, and style icon who inspired the eponymous Hermès Birkin handbag, has died at the age of 76.

According to Le Parisien, the iconic singer-actress was found dead at her home in Paris on Sunday. No further details have been shared at this time. Birkin had canceled a series of performances in Paris scheduled earlier this year for health reasons. She was previously diagnosed with leukemia in 2002 and suffered from a minor stroke in 2021.

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in Marylebone, London on December 14th, 1946. Raised in Chelsea with her brother, screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin, she audition for small acting parts before marrying composer John Barry in 1965 and giving birth to her first child, the late photographer Kate Barry, in 1967. In the meantime, she landed breakthrough roles in 1966’s Blow-Up and Kaleidoscope as well as 1968’s Wonderwall.

Birkin and Barry divorced in 1968, and the actress moved to Paris,...