French National Film Board President Gaëtan Bruel on the Country’s Role in Oscar Race, Relationship With Streamers and Luring U.S. Shoots: ‘Cinema Is Part of France’s DNA’

Possibly the most powerful figure in French cinema, Gaëtan Bruel, who became the youngest president of the National Film Board (Cnc) earlier this year at the age of 37, is on a mission to build alliances with American filmmakers, guilds and streamers. Bruel – who lived in New York for several years until 2023 as the former head of French Cultural Services, a division of the French Embassy — is making his first official trip to the U.S. under his new role this week, to take part in The American French Film Festival (Taff) which kicks off today (Oct. 28).

In an interview with Variety on the eve of his departure for L.A. to attend Taff, Bruel discussed the increasingly large role of France in international cinema, which is reflected in the large number of French co-productions among the official Oscar submissions, including this year’s French Oscar candidate, Jafar Panahi’s Palme…