23/01/2009

Producer Antoine de Clermont Tonnerre was yesterday elected president of Unifrance, the promotional agency for French film abroad. He replaces Margaret Menegoz, who had occupied the post since 2003.

From 1979-1981, Clermont Tonnerre was president of the French Production Society (SFP), who were behind the film The Return of Martin Guerre. He then took over the helm at Éditions Mondiales, whose activities he diversified into film and TV.

Through Films Ariane, Clermont Tonnerre produced films by Gérard Oury and Roberto Enrico, and co-produced Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, Ettore Scola’s The Family and Jerry Schatzberg’s Reunion.

With the creation in 1992 of his own company, MACT Productions, his filmography expanded to include features by Raoul Ruiz, Eran Riklis, Goran Paskaljevic, Abdelkrim Bahloul, Eugène Green and Helma Sanders-Brahms.

Clermont Tonnerre’s co-productions include Walter Salles’ Central Station, Polish director Jan Jakub Kolski’s Pornography [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Russian director Alexandre Sokourov’s The Sun, Philanthropy by Romania’s Nae Caranfil and Ordinary Hero by Italy’s Michele Placido. Further titles are Belgian director Joachim Lafosse’s Private Property and Private Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques-Henri Bronckart
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile].

His most recent production – Pierre-François Martin-Laval’s King Guillaume [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – will be released in theatres next Wednesday.

The APC (Film Producers Association) is delighted that "Unifrance has chosen as its head an independent producer who is particularly knowledgeable about international subjects…and has, for many years, been professionally committed to the diversity of creation in France and abroad."

A regular at the different gatherings for European producers, Clermont Tonnerre has always passionately defended European film and its promotion on a transnational level.

(Translated from French)