.png)
8 months ago
26 ARTICLE AD
Dominique Boutonnat, the President of France’s cinema board, will stand trial for sexual assault in June.
The producer and CNC chief has been under investigation for two years after being indicted in February 2021 for an alleged sexual assault. In September 2022, the case was taken to trial. According to French media reports, a court in Nanterre has now set a court date for June. Boutonnat denies all charges.
Boutonnat was first placed under investigation in October 2020 after his godson filed a police complaint accusing him of an assault during a family holiday in Greece in August 2020.
When contacted about whether he would remain at the head of the CNC following the news, the cinema body declined to comment and referred us to Boutonnat’s lawyer. We have reached out to Boutonnat’s legal team for comment.
Boutonnat was first appointed CNC President in 2019. France’s government then gave him a second term in 2022 — after his indictment. The controversial appointment came after France’s new Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak expressed her support for him. His current term runs down next year.
That he has been allowed to stay in post while indicted has been a sore point for those campaigning for a a #MeToo moment in French cinema and television.
In a scorching interview with Deadline last week, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Spanish Apartment actress Judith Godrèche called the situation “insane,” adding: “The guy who heads the CNC is facing sexual assault charges, and no-one bats an eyelid.”
She claimed to have been given a letter signed by “all the major producer bodies” in France sent to President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 after Boutonnat’s indictment, which called for him to “suspended until the case was resolved” under the presumption of innocence.
