Gaetan Bruel, the new president of the Cnc, France’s National Film Board, has landed the job at a crucial time for the industry. While one of his goals is to boast the profile of France internationally and ramp up the volume of international shoots in the country, Bruel has, like most of the European film industry, been coping with a flow of alarming declarations by U.S. President Trump who proposed a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the U.S.
The 37-year old executive, who knows the U.S. industry better than any of his predecessors at the Cnc. Indeed, Bruel lived there for several years as the former head of French Cultural Services, a division of the French Embassy with a footprint in nine American cities, from 2019 to 2023, and worked hand-in-hand with the Cnc to promote French talent and the country’s audiovisual sector in the U.