The day started off with Introductory words given by Serge Toubiana and Hervé Michel - President and Vice-President of Unifrance respectively - followed by an opening speech given by Olivier Becht - Minister Delegate to Foreign Trade, Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad. Nicolas Seydoux, President of Gaumont, then delivered a tribute to Daniel Toscan du Plantier.
UNIC’s CEO, Laura Houlgatte took part in the first-round table discussion “Reconnecting with international moviegoers” with Laurent Dutoit — Managing Director at Agora Films, Vincent Maraval — President of Wild Bunch International and Director Dominik Moll. Following his opening presentation on the export numbers for French cinemas in 2022, Gilles Renouard, Director of Cinema at Unifrance, moderated the discussion.
The discussion focused on box office and admissions in 2022 as well as a general overview of the film and cinema market that year. This was followed by an exchange on challenges and opportunities for the industry in 2023. Speakers focused on content, promotion and audiences and the need for cooperation along the value chain were stressed by all speakers.
The following round table discussion was dedicated to the strengths of French audiovisual creation around the world. Following her opening presentation on export numbers and trends for the French audiovisual industry in 2022, Sarah Hemar, Audiovisual director at Unifrance, moderated the discussion.
The round table consisted of Emmanuelle Dessureault — Chief Acquisitions Officer at Radio-Canada, Marie-Laure Hebrard — President at Film and Picture, Telidja Klai — Content manager at VRT Ketnet and Anne Rambach — Screenwriter and SACD President. The focus of the discussion was on French content. Where does it travel best? Why is it successful? What are the favourite genres?
The morning ended with a round of questions for Pierre-Antoine Capton — Co-founder and CEO of Mediawan which was moderated by Daniela Elstner — Executive Director at Unifrance. The Q&As revolved around cooperation in the industry and stressed the constant need for investment.
The full program of the conference can be found here.
We look forward to the next edition!