Several personalities from the world of cinema have called on the LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez to reconsider a reduction in subsidy to the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival, in an open letter published on Tuesday. The text was signed by several personalities such as the directors Cédric Klapisch, Robert Guédiguian or the actress Romane Bohringer.
“This disengagement jeopardizes, in the short term, the festival and its short film market, the year-round actions carried out towards all audiences and of course the jobs linked to them”, says this letter written by the president of the Éric Roux festival and published on the website of the daily Liberation.
Friday, May 12, during the vote on the reduction in subsidy, he reacted as follows: “Our teams are in shock. It’s a tough decision! “. He lamented: “We have not been able to dialogue with the region. I asked several times for a meeting with President Wauquiez. We were full of hope given the importance of the festival as a cultural player in the region at national and even international level. It’s very complicated for us because it comes on top of the deficit due to the two Covid years”.
The region’s financial aid to the Sauve qui peut le court film association, which organizes the Clermont-Ferrand international festival – one of the largest in the world – has been reduced from 210,000 euros to 100,000 euros, out of a total budget of EUR 3.2 million, in a vote in the standing committee last week.
The cut “which represents almost 8% of the total budget of the event, comes after the festival has been held. We have no leeway to implement savings commensurate with the financial loss and costs already incurred,” the signatories emphasize. The letter recalls that the post-covid context had “strongly impacted (the) resources” even though the association “has always been recognized as exemplary in its management”.
“Mr. President, you wrote (…) “to be particularly attached to the festival” which “constitutes an immense pride for the Region”, (…) a major popular event, (…) a magnificent vector of transmission”. The discrepancy between the words and the actions is obvious”, recalls the text. The signatories therefore ask Laurent Wauquiez to “go back on (his) decision” and “to agree to engage in a real dialogue now with all the actors of cultural action in the regional territory”.
The cultural policy of the former president of the Republicans and his budget cuts have been strongly criticized in recent weeks by the cultural and political world.
On May 4, in Le Monde, a column was signed by some 200 personalities from the cultural world, including four former Ministers of Culture – Roselyne Bachelot, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Aurélie Filipetti and Philippe Douste-Blazy – denouncing the withdrawal of the regional grant from the Théâtre Nouvelle Génération (TNG) in Lyon.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak, on the set of the program C à vous, commented last Wednesday: “He has the right to lower his subsidies. On the political field he will assume his choices. We see where his priorities are ”, in reference to the major projects carried by the former president of the Republicans.
