Dominique Boutonnat, the president of France‘s Nationwide Movie Board, the CNC, has been discovered responsible on sexual assault prices and obtained a three-year sentence, two of which shall be suspended.
Boutonnat has stepped down from the CNC within the wake of Friday’s verdict and shall be changed by Olivier Henrard. Boutonnat will not be anticipated to serve any jail time however will stay beneath home arrest with an digital bracelet for a yr, French media reviews. Boutonnat denied the allegations and is interesting the choice.
Boutonnat was indicted in 2021, accused of sexually assaulting his then-19-year-old godson in August 2020, throughout a trip in Greece. Regardless of the allegations, Boutonnat, who has shut ties with French President Emmanuel Macron, was re-appointed as head of the nationwide movie board in 2022 and served most of his second time period, which was to finish subsequent yr. Beneath his steering, the movie board arrange a number of new initiatives to fight sexual harassment and combat sexual violence within the business.
In response to the ruling, the CNC issued a press release, saying that the allegations in opposition to Boutonnat “concern the personal sphere and don’t have anything to do with the CNC’s actions whose functioning weren’t affected by the enterprise of the judicial process.”
The Boutonnat ruling shall be hailed as a #MeToo reckoning by many within the French business. Forward of this yr’s Cannes Movie Competition, a petition calling for his elimination from workplace was backed by a number of business teams, together with the labor union CGT Spectacle and activist organizations Collectif 50/50 and MeTooMédia.
One other promiant French movie determine will quickly face his personal #MeToo second. Inexperienced Card and Cyrano de Bergerac star Gérard Depardieu, will stand trial in October on prices of sexual assault introduced by two ladies who accused the actor of assaulting them on the set of the movie The Inexperienced Shutters, prices Depardieu denies.
