Two years after the merger of the two agencies dedicated to the international promotion of French cinema and audiovisual output and after a transition period with a co-presidency by Serge Toubiana and Hervé Michel, Gilles Pélisson was elected today as the head of Unifrance for a 3 year mandate.

Chairman and CEO of the TF1 broadcasting group from 2016 to 2022, Gilles Pélisson becomes the 7th president of Unifrance after Daniel Toscan du Plantier (1988-2003), Margaret Ménégoz (2003-2009), Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre (2009-2013), Jean-Paul Salomé (2013-2017), Serge Toubiana (2017-2023) and Hervé Michel (2021-2023).

Having previously worked as director of Euro Disney, Bouygues Telecom and Accor, Gilles Pélisson’s profile represents a major departure in the history of Unifrance, and is part of a films and audiovisual landscape in which boundaries are blurring, in the throes of change these past few years (notably in regards to broadcasting with the rise of platforms and buyback transactions, closer relations and mergings such as the one announced yesterday between the French group Playtime and the German company SquareOne and the Nordic outfit Scanbox under the Vuela Group umbrella).

The new president of Unifrance will be supported by the current general director Daniela Elstner.