Unifrance’s New President Gilles Pelisson Weighs in on Opportunities for the Independent French Cinema, TV Sector
23.01.2024 - 17:02
/ variety.com
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After keeping a fairly low profile as president of France’s leading commercial network TF1 Group for seven years, Gilles Pelisson, the discreet Harvard-educated executive, is ready for showtime. He has been propelled into the spotlight to promote French film and TV in his new role as president of Unifrance, succeeding Serge Toubiana last summer.
While participating in his first big gig for Unifrance at the Rendez-Vous showcase in Paris (which wraps Tuesday), Pelisson showed he had enough swagger to mingle with French stars and industry professionals alike, as well as deliver speeches about the prospects for French movies and TV series with both authority and conviction. In the space of one week during the Rendez-Vous, he handed out the French Film Award to “By the Grace of God” actor Melvil Poupaud, and presented Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan with the best international co-production prize at the Lumiere Award on Monday.
The week-long Rendez-Vous welcomed more than 40 film sales companies and more than 450 international distributors. While Pelisson, who previously worked in top positions at Accor and Disney, isn’t a cinephile like his predecessor, he’s been involved in the film and TV world at a macro level previously in his career.
During his tenure at TF1, the group bought Newen, which has become one of France’s largest TV production and distribution studios, as well as Blue Spirit, an animation studio. At TF1, Pelisson was also involved in co-producing movies that were acquired by the network for a free-to-air window.
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