Unifrance honoured French actor Melvil Poupaud with a French Cinema Award

Unifrance honoured French actor Melvil Poupaud with a French Cinema Award, a price that celebrates an international film industry figure who has worked to make French cinema resonate on the global stage. The honorary award was presented to actor Melvil Poupaud at the Ministry of Culture by Unifrance President Gilles Pélisson and Executive Director Daniela Elstner, in the presence of Culture Minister Rachida Dati and CNC President Dominique Boutonnat. "For me, culture is a passing of the baton, and your profession," she told the audience, which was mainly made up of personalities linked to the world of cinema, "is not a profession, but a mission (...) and I hope that with you, culture will be a matter of passing the baton," said Dati.

Gilles Pélisson, President of Unifrance, then reported on French cinema and audiovisual figures for 2023, in particular the 37 million admissions to movie theaters in 2023, and mentioned the cinema and audiovisual markets taking place at the same time in Paris as part of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, with over 1,000 people accredited.

Daniela Elstner for her part, took a look back at Melvil Poupaud's prolific and long career, underlining his loyalty, right from the start of it, to filmmakers such as Raoul Ruiz, François Ozon, and Éric Rohmer, and evoking his recent involvement in series, such as "OVNI(s)" or Pierre Schoeller's upcoming production "In the Shadows". "You have always given of your time for the public, with generosity and a willingness to share your expertise, and above all a real taste for recounting again and again your film shoots, your experiences as an actor, the emotion generated by filmmaking and by films. Today, you are recognized not only in France, but also in Japan, the United States, Europe, and Latin America. You are a great French artist with an international soul."

Poupaud pointed out that he had recently realized that he had been working for 40 years, even though he was only 50. "Once again I've realized how lucky I am, I have no intention of stopping, and this award encourages me to continue on my path," he said. He then went on to talk about his early career, and in particular Raoul Ruiz's incredible productions in Portugal. "As a child actor, I said to myself, 'cinema is adventure,' and from this experience I developed a taste for travel, which I've never lost. I then seized every opportunity that presented itself, both for acting in films and for promoting my films. And that's where Unifrance came in, very early on in my career. I remember my first trip to Japan 30 years ago, I remember Daniel Toscan du Plantier, I remember the Sarasota Festival with the improbable American retired women festival-goers who loved French Cinema for a week. Then Russia, China, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Japan, again and always, New York with great memories, and Europe across its breadth. Unifrance, by sending me to the four corners of the world, enabled me to realize this dream in which cinema and adventure go hand in hand. For me, right from the start, I thought that an actor should not only be recognized in his own country, but that his choices and his films should find an echo abroad."