Dear Pierre Lescure,
Dear Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival,
Dear Edouard Waintrop, Managing Director of the Directors' Fortnight,
Dear Charles Tesson, General Delegate of Critical Week,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Bravo.
Congratulations to all for your selections.
For your movies. For your movies.
I am very pleased to welcome you today.
And I am proud. Proud to see a beautiful part of the Cannes selection gathered here, behind the French banner.
I want to congratulate you all.
And above all, thank you.
Thank you for the cinema that you offer us.
Thank you for his audacity.
Thank you for his generosity.
Thank you for your risk-taking.
Your shots. Your speeches.
Thank you for your brilliant shots.
You got some nasty shots.
Your thunderclap, my friend.
Each of your films is an opportunity: for the audience; for the cause it serves; for France.
Each of your films was necessary.
This is the message of the Selection in Cannes.
This is what distinguishes a «great» film, which marks history, from a «successful» film: a great film is not only successful, it has the traits of necessity.
Thank you for the artistic, political and philosophical struggles you carry.
Thank you for keeping creative freedom alive. Step out of line; emancipate from an inheritance; step aside, out of the codes and grooves already drawn. This is also what makes French cinema: the refusal of convenience.
Thank you for bringing freedom of expression to life. By showing what is not seen. By making what is not said heard. Breaking bans sometimes.
Some have done so at the cost of their freedom: I want to have a thought here for Jafar Panahi and Kirill Serebrennikov.
I want to pay tribute to the heralds of freedom of expression that they are.
And I want to pay tribute, with them, to all artists around the world who are worried, threatened, gagged.
This Ministry is at their side. France is at their side.
You have this freedom of speech, of gaze, of criticism.
This freedom of creation and expression.
Never waste it.
Never cut back on your revolts, your struggles, your cries.
I hope you leave tomorrow with the same audacity.
Keep making films: every time, as if it were the first.
We’ll be there for you.
And we’re going to do it with determination, the same commitment that you put in your films.
This Ministry has its own battles to fight for the defense of French cinema.
I’m wearing three of them.
The fight for equality between women and men, to begin with.
The account is not there.
And it’s not just women who are suffering, it’s the whole sector. It’s film. It’s creation.
Because these are all talents we are deprived of.
Women remain less represented in many occupations, paid less, and supported by producers on average than men…
In turn, they are less visible, less rewarded: festival selections reflect these inequalities.
The fight remains to be waged.
You all have your part to play: in the projects you carry, support, in which you participate; in the example you offer, women and men, to the younger generations.
Cannes will be for me a moment of mobilization.
We decided, together with my Swedish counterpart, to organize an international conference on gender equality during the Festival. It will take place on Sunday 13 May and should bring together professionals from all over the world.
I will take concrete action in France. I think we have waited too long. We can no longer wait.
Since things do not change by themselves, it is up to us to change them.
I’m going to be holding “Assises de l'égalité femmes-hommes dans le cinéma” in June to discuss a series of measures with all the representatives of the sector.
To begin with, I would like to see an Equality Charter developed for the sector, and I would like to see adherence to this Charter become a condition of NQF support. In particular, it should address the issue of equal pay.
I also hope that a “bonus” system will be put in place for films that are particularly exemplary in terms of parity or the promotion of women to certain key positions in the teams.
I hope that the Ministry and the CNC will give special support to women in the sector, from professional integration to international visibility.
And finally, I want to create an endowment fund, which will bring together the State and private sponsors, to help young women directors develop and produce their films. This fund will be open to women filmmakers from around the world. Because the fight is universal.
I’m making it a priority.
The second fight I have for our cinema: the fight to support creation.
I say “fight”, because in our economic context, that’s one of them.
This support includes CNC support, of which almost half are selective aids that allow France to be the “country” of author cinema, and the home of filmmakers from around the world.
It also involves tax credits, whose revaluation has enabled France to attract a considerable level of investment.
I fought to keep the tax credits open this year, and I will continue. Today they are a pillar of the French film model.
No one is unaware of the difficulties that certain actors may encounter, who take their risks in the production of small films, in the promotion of new talents, in the effort made to bring a film to its audience.
We must continue to explore all avenues to find innovative financing and attract new investors.
Finally, I cannot speak without talking about the reform of public broadcasting, which is under consideration.
Public broadcasting must be transformed:
- To develop a truly alternative to private channels and new social media;
- To regain youth;
- To be fully present on the digital front, where usage is developing.
Creation will play a key role in this process. I say this clearly as Minister of Culture.
Creation is not a component, it is the foundation of our audiovisual model. It must be at the centre of the reform.
The third fight I have for our cinema is regulation.
It is the condition for exercising your freedoms. Cultural diversity is guaranteed through regulation. It is through regulation that value is created and protected.
France has built a unique framework in the world. It is one of the reasons for our film heritage.
But this framework was invented before the digital revolution.
It needs to be adapted today.
That is what I am fighting for at the European level, around the “Audiovisual Media Services” directive.
Today, video channels and platforms are established outside France to avoid the obligations of financing creation. This competition is unfair.
We must impose on these actors the same financing obligations as the traditional actors established in France.
And we must impose a quota of European works on video-on-demand platforms.
The next few days will be decisive for reaching an agreement at European level in line with our positions.
I have put all my strength into the negotiations, by increasing the number of meetings with Commissioners and Members of the European Parliament. I promise you that we will win. Because the future of creation is at stake.
The adaptation of the regulation is also the meaning of the mediation that I triggered on the chronology of the media, so that an agreement is found.
Let us come back to the fact that discussions have been stalled for four years.
The purpose of the mediation I launched was to engage all professionals in a process of responsibility.
Because we have an obligation to produce results. The media timeline is no longer adapted. It is out of step with usage. It is out of step with the evolution of the audiovisual landscape.
Today, in spite of the mediation launched, the discussions are not successful.
So I decided to take the lead, the mediators will make recommendations to me and I will take the lead – with their support and that of the TNC.
I remain confident in the strength of the proposal and the spirit of responsibility of the industry.
But without an agreement, as I said, I will take responsibility. Reform must have two objectives:
- Improve the accessibility of works, taking the right measure of the expectations and uses of spectators;
- And ensure the best possible funding for creators, by promoting in the chronology the broadcasters who are the most committed and virtuous to cinema and its diversity. I insist on that word.
Adapting regulation: this is finally the meaning of the plan that I will carry to boost the fight against piracy and put France at the forefront.
This is a priority. Piracy is an absolute scourge.
It destroys your worth.
It destroys your power and your duty to dissent.
It destroys our model.
It destroys our cinema, our creation.
It endangers the means of expression of future generations.
This is a real challenge because piracy modes and technologies are constantly evolving.
The bulk of our arsenal is about peer-to-peer downloading, today, while piracy is happening in 80% of cases in streaming or direct downloading now.
We must act on all forms of piracy:
- Evolving the graduated response mechanism;
- And by prioritizing the fight against pirate sites, to dry them of any resource and make them disappear.
I wish that “blacklists” be established by HADOPI, to allow advertisers, payment services or search engines to know about illegal sites and to cease their relations with them;
I also hope that we have effective ways to block or dereference sites, and all mirror sites that are created after the main site is closed. This power could be entrusted to HADOPI, in conjunction with the judge, to meet the dual requirement of a fast and sustainable removal of pirate sites over time.
These are avenues of action of considerable scope.
Nothing of the kind has been imagined since the creation of HADOPI, that is to say for nearly 10 years.
I hope that the role and powers of HADOPI will be strengthened, and symbolically, that its name will be changed, to mark the entry into a new era.
The fight against piracy is one of the great challenges of the century for cinema. France will be in the front line to carry it.
That, dear friends, is my roadmap for defending French cinema.
These are my battles.
You have your own.
Don’t give it up.
Congratulations again for your films.
Good luck to Cannes.
I’m with you now.