France’s CNC is creating a support service for filmmakers and industry professionals, including festivals, facing attempts to restrict their free
France’s CNC is creating a support service for filmmakers and industry professionals, including festivals, facing attempts to restrict their freedom of expression.
CNC president Gaetan Bruel said the move had been motivated by the circumstances that had led director Nadav Lapid to withdraw from the FID Marseille festival in the South of France earlier this month.
The festival had faced pressure to implement a cultural boycott of Israeli artists and films because of the actions of the Israeli government in Palestine.
In a statement, Bruel described the Fid Marseille situation as constituting “an obstacle to creative freedom and the freedom of expression…this incident is worrying”.
Israeli-born, Paris-based filmmaker Lapid pulled out of the festival’s upcoming July 2026 edition after some 10 films from the selection were pulled by their filmmakers in protest of Lapid’s presence.
The festival had first asked him to chair the jury, then, in response to mounting pressure from filmmakers and outside protestors, suggested Lapid host a screening and masterclass instead. He accepted, but his presence at the festival continued to draw protest, so Lapid withdrew from the festival entirely.
The series of events provoked outrage in the French film industry and two open letters expressing solidarity with Lapid were by more than 350 professionals, including Justine Triet, Arnaud Desplechin, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Claire Denis, Natalie Portman and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and published in Le Monde in early June.
“The reason so many festivals and cultural institutions in our country receive support from central government and local authorities is precisely that they fulfil a public interest mission,” said Bruel. “As such, they bear a particular responsibility: that of ensuring the conditions are in place for the circulation of works, for debate, and for the exchange of viewpoints.”
“Creative freedom is not defended only when it is comfortable or consensual. It is defended precisely when it becomes difficult.”
He argued artists should be judged for their work and challenged on their positions, but that “they should never be prevented from participating in our cultural life because of their nationality or what they are supposed to represent”.
Calling for “collective vigilance,” he noted France’s ministry of culture had appointed a “senior official” within the organisation to oversee issues dealing with “creative freedom” in addition to a practical and legal guide designed to support professionals facing such situations, published in July of 2025.
The CNC is taking this one step further, following the fallout of the FID Marseille – Nadav Lapid debacle by creating a dedicated support service whereby all industry professionals from filmmakers, artists and producers to festival organisers and artistic directors can contact the CNC immediately.
The CNC will then provide tailored information, advice and support to facilitate them make decisions by assembling support teams with relevant expertise within the industry.
Bruel said the CNC “stands alongside all organisations that may be subject to pressure or attempts to curtail their freedom of creation and dissemination.”
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