I am very happy to open these 3th Assises for equality, parity and diversity in cinema and audiovisual.
In recent years, many professionals have mobilized to defend parity within the sector, including of course the 50/50 collective that brings us together today and which I thank.
This fight we are collectively leading is essential for our audiovisual and film industry. These factories of our collective imagination are decisive for the construction of our society. As such, they play a leading role in promoting equality between women and men.
While the debates may have been heated, we were able to move forward together to transform an industry, and beyond, our society. This struggle we are collectively waging is nothing more than the defense of those republican principles to which we are all deeply attached: Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood.
My predecessor pledged last year, at the Second Assembly at the CNC, to adopt strong measures to fight sexism, harassment and sexual violence at every stage of production: within the companies in the sector, on filming or during the promotion of films.
A strong expression of these commitments is to make the payment of CNC aid conditional on the fulfilment by companies of obligations regarding the prevention and detection of sexual harassment.
If the health crisis we are going through profoundly changes our activity, it must not, however, mark the end of our commitments, so important for the future.
I am therefore delighted to see that this year the CNC is implementing a real revolution in its support for creation. Since the 1ster In October, its “General Rules of Aid” clearly mention the conditioning of all its supporters to respect, by the applicants, their legal obligations in terms of prevention of sexual harassment, namely:
- The designation of a referent for companies with 250 or more persons,
- The development of an internal reporting procedure,
- The provision of an alert cell,
- A reminder of the role of representatives of staff and occupational medicine,
- Or the signing of a charter with the unions.
The CNC has gone one step further and to the end of this logic, creating a tailor-made training for professionals so that they are better supported. The CNC also provides funding for these training courses, which are provided by the European Association Against Violence Against Women at Work. This means that 9,000 professionals, legal representatives of businesses, will be trained within three years.
This is the first time that a public institution has set up a conditionality mechanism of this scope.
I would therefore like to congratulate all those who have worked with us to take this great step forward: companies first, because they are the first ones concerned, but also professional organizations, collectives and think tanks, and the NCC teams that I know are particularly engaged and engaged on these topics.
I hope that discussions will continue with the training bodies in the sector, so that the training offered by the CNC can find the necessary relays that will make it possible to reach as many professionals as possible.
The renewal of the cinema and the audiovisual sector, its adaptation to the present challenges, also requires the establishment of a real diversity in the composition of the committees that instruct the CNC’s aids.
Its President, Dominique Boutonnat, promised last year that these commissions would better reflect the reality of our country and our territories. This movement has largely begun this year and we can be proud of it.
First of all, parity is now achieved both at the level of the members of these 65 commissions, as well as at the level of their presidencies.
In addition, the CNC now ensures that young generations, who were all too often absent, are represented on these commissions.
Finally, the CNC is now particularly attentive to the fact that the commissions integrate members from various geographical origins, thus embracing the paths, the stories, and the multiple sensitivities of our territories.
We will go even further next year. Taking advantage of the tools of the «City Policy», intended to restore republican equality and improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of «priority districts», the CNC will enter into agreements with institutions, film associations and schools located in “priority neighbourhoods” or serving the population of those neighbourhoods. I am thinking in particular of the Kourtrajmé school in Montfermeil, the Cinéfabrique in Lyon, or Rubika in Valenciennes. These partners will make proposals for candidates, women, men, young and old, to be included in the TNC committees.
The results of these initiatives are already visible. I am delighted to see that 34% of French films produced in 2020 benefited from the parity bonus introduced two years ago by the CNC, whereas they were only 22% in the first year of the scheme, or that the share of first films made by women increased from 27% in 2010 to 40% in 2019. Our goal, of course, is to see these results progress.
Beyond the CNC’s support mechanisms, we will also take action towards our youth and their access to works.
Our film education systems, “Ecole, Collège, Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma”, are a tremendous tool to raise awareness among children from an early age and to change their outlook by promoting representations that were previously marginalized.
I hope that the film catalogues of these devices will be more composed of films made by women.
This year already, twice as many films by women directors appear in these catalogues as in the previous year. But we must redouble our efforts: we will ensure that catalogues will be composed within four years of 20 additional films of the French cinematographic «Matrimoine», in addition to films proposed by distributors and submitted to the selection commissions.
Nearly 2 million children will have access to a renewed, more egalitarian catalogue.
This movement of modernization of the profession could not be complete if it did not also include the Académie des César, showcase of French cinema.
New statutes were voted on November 10 by the general assembly of the Association de promotion du cinéma. They introduce important changes in the governance of the Academy, with parity at all levels and clear rules, intended to guarantee the democratic life of the association and the renewal of its leaders.
It is a great wind of renewal, a hope for all cinema, and beyond all the French, so attached to this symbol of the cultural life of our country.
These changes, these deepenings, complement the groundwork that has been undertaken collectively for more than three years by the world of cinema and audiovisual.
I would like to commend the work of the 50/50 Collective, whose innovative and committed character has never been so evident.
The impulses of the Collective alongside the public authorities have made it possible to launch a dynamic of profound transformation that must still be encouraged and amplified, and that must spread to all cultural sectors.
That’s the whole point of my action since I joined the Ministry of Culture. My determination is total to make equality, diversity and the fight against violence against women an indisputable reality of our culture. It is our honour, our future, and our fidelity to the principles that have guided its history.
Thank you.