Actress Isabelle Huppert became on Thursday July 2 the first woman elected to the presidency of the Cinémathèque française, a prestigious institution guaranteeing the memory of cinema, the organization announced. At 73, she succeeds the Franco-Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras, 93 and president of the Cinémathèque since 2007. She was elected by the board of directors for a three-year term, running until 2029.
Isabelle Huppert is one of the most prolific French actresses, rewarded with numerous awards in France and abroad. Caesarized twice, for “La Cérémonie” in 1996 and “Elle” in 2017, she has appeared in more than 150 films and series and is one of the few French actresses with an international aura.
In France, it was directed by the greatest directors, including Claude Chabrol and Maurice Pialat. Abroad, she has performed in front of the camera of the Austrian Michael Haneke, the Americans Michael Cimino and Otto Preminger, the Italians Marco Bellocchio and Marco Ferreri, the Pole Andrzej Wajda and the South Korean Hong Sang-soo. Its mission will be to defend the memory of arthouse and general public cinema within this reference in world cinema, founded in 1936 and located in the Bercy district of Paris.
An institution under pressure
This institution preserves 50,000 heritage films, nearly a million documents on cinema and thousands of devices. Three-quarters financed by public subsidies, the association regularly organizes film retrospectives devoted to actors or filmmakers, and exhibitions such as recently the one on Marilyn Monroe.
The Cinémathèque has also been shaken by several controversies in recent years, particularly in connection with the wave of the #MeToo movement and the freedom of speech on sexual violence in cinema. The programming of “Last Tango in Paris” at the end of 2024 had notably set fire to the powder due to a rape scene filmed without the consent of actress Maria Schneider. The film had to be canceled.
In February 2025, the institution was also singled out by the Court of Auditors due to its management not making it possible to achieve the objectives of heritage conservation and dissemination to the public. The Cinémathèque française is due to open a branch in Marseille at the beginning of next year in the district known as “Les Crottes”, where the French actor Yves Montand grew up.
