Dominique Boutonnat, the leader of France’s leading cinema institution, will be tried in June on charges of s-xually assaulting his godson, authorities announced on Wednesday.
The announcement comes as French cinema is reeling from a resurgent #MeToo reckoning, which has seen numerous big stars, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of s-xual misconduct.
Activists have urged for 54-year-old Boutonnat, the chairman of the powerful National Centre of Cinema (CNC), to go following the claims against him, claiming he is unfit to lead the necessary transformation.
Boutonnat has strenuously disputed the allegations.
The prosecutor’s office said that the trial would begin on June 14.
Neither the CNC nor Boutonnat’s attorney were immediately available for comment.
Boutonnat’s godson, not a relative, accused him in 2020 of s-xual abuse while on vacation in Greece earlier that year, when he was 21 years old.
The film’s producer claims it was “consensual kissing,” but he was charged with s-xual assault in September 2022.
Activists were disappointed when the French government reappointed him to a second term as CNC president a few months earlier.
The subject received increased attention after actor Judith Godreche urged for Boutonnat’s removal from his job during a major Senate hearing last week.
Otherwise, she stated that the CNC would be a site where “producers go laughing because they think, it’s funny, I’m off to be trained against s-xual violence at an institution whose president has himself been accused of s-xual violence.”
Godreche has been a significant player in France’s #MeToo movement in recent months after accusing two directors of rape and s-xual assault while she was a kid, claims they reject.
The CNC is France’s principal state authority for cinema, and it provides considerable financial support to both domestic and international arthouse films.