2023 Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
This year creative documentary fans and professionals are invited to celebrate this thirty-fifth edition of the Lussas États généraux, and also on the occasion of the “Année du documentaire” we launched at the beginning of this year in collaboration with the Cinémathèque du documentaire and the Scam.
I take the opportunity to pay tribute to all those who keep documentary alive, who protect it, make it known and radiate in France and outside the country: filmmakers, producers, distributors, private and public broadcasters, festivals, platforms, professional organisations and associations…
In this respect, we've been spoilt this first half of the year: the Année du documentaire had barely been launched when Nicolas Philibert’s Sur l'Adamant won the Golden Bear at Berlin, followed by Kaouther Ben Hania’s Les Filles d'Olfa, a French co-production supported by the CNC Advance on box office receipts fund, which won the Œil d'or ex aequo at the Cannes 2023 Festival.
These films demonstrate the diversity of documentary creation in France, the role of our professionals in international production and the capacity of the genre to testify to our history while permanently reinventing itself. Yes, we are in dire need of this privileged form of questioning reality by the image, at a time when the freedom of creation is losing ground in numerous countries and sometimes even in our democratic societies.
Consequently, we accompany professionals of creative documentary with our financial support through the stages of production and distribution. And I truly wish to signal our appreciation of the agreement, signed in January between producers and film creators, on the minimal remuneration granted to documentary authors.
Nowhere in the world does an ecosystem exist that matches the quality and sophistication of the one for documentary in France. And we are constantly striving to adapt this system to the major upheavals reshaping the sector.
This said, I wish all an excellent États généraux at Lussas and express our warmest thanks to the unfailing and impassioned commitment of Pascale Paulat, Christophe Postic and their team.
Dominique Boutonnat
CNC President