The 2011 Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant winners

Grants awarded to 14 talented young professionals in the arts and media

On 31 January at Paris’ Pompidou Centre (3^rd arrondissement), the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation held its 22^nd annual awards ceremony to present grants to 14 young professionals who submitted original, innovative projects in the following categories: Documentary Filmmaker, Animated Filmmaker, Digital Designer, Writer, Print Journalist, Bookseller, Musician, Photographer, Film Producer and Television Screenwriter.

Since their creation in 1990, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation’s Talent Grants have been supporting young professionals active in the arts and media by helping them to bring their personal projects to fruition. Candidates must be under age 30 (or under age 35 for the Bookseller grant).

More than financial rewards, these grants serve as a springboard for the young winners’ next career phases, and 2011 saw a number of former Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant winners taking the spotlight, including Florian Zeller (winner of the 2002 Writer grant), whose play La Vérité was produced at Théâtre Montparnasse to very favourable reviews from the critics, and Laetitia Gonzalez (winner of the 1996 Film Producer grant), who – together with Yaëlle Fogiel – won the 2011 Daniel Toscan du Plantier award. Her production company, Les Films du Poisson, has notably produced L’Arbre by Julie Bertuccelli and Tournée by Mathieu Amalric.

The total amount awarded this year is €260,000.

The 14 winners in 2011

• Documentary Filmmaker grant (€25,000)
  Jérôme Plan, 28
  Project: to film a documentary in West Africa tracing the steps of Grégoire Ahongbonon, a man who cares for the mentally disabled.
• Animated Filmmaker grant (€30,000)
  Michaël Crouzat, 27, Denis Do, 26, and Élise Trinh, 25
  Project: Funan, Le Peuple Nouveau, a feature-length animated film about the Cambodian civil war.
• Digital Designer grant (€25,000)
  Éloïc Gimenez, 29
  Project: Ça Bouge dans l’Air, a meteorological design that puts intuitive animation at centre stage thanks to an exploration of the new possibilities for expression made possible with digital technology.
• Writer grant (€25,000)
  Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, 30
  Project: to write the story of a man who, after many years in exile, returns to his home country, Cuba, to bury his mother.
• Writer grant – special award (€5,000)
  Célia Levi, 30
  Project: to write the story of a 50-year-old Chinese man whose daily life and deeply held beliefs are disrupted by the arrival of a young American relative.
• Print Journalist grant (€10,000)
  Jordan Pouille,30
  Project: to report on the human, economic and ecological consequences of Chinese industrial fishing operations off the coasts of various continents.
• Bookseller grant (€30,000)
  Bruno Ménat, 27, and Sidonie Mézaize, 26
  Project: to open a French bookstore in Bucharest to sell high-quality books to local Francophones and Francophiles.
• Musician grant (€25,000)
  Nicolas Dhers, 29, for the group Stoned Popes
  Project: to record the band’s first album.
• Photographer grant (€15,000)
  Elena Chernyshova, 30
  Project: to photograph daily life in the polar city of Norilsk, in both day and night.
• Film Producer grant (€50,000)
  Christophe Barral, 30
  Project: to create a production company to produce the films of Dominique Baumard, among others.
• Television Screenwriter grant (€20,000)
  Charlotte Sanson, 31
  Project: to write a 26-minute mosaic series about the coming-of-age experiences of four young girls.

The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant winners are selected by prestigious juries presided over by such high-profile individuals active in the media, arts and culture as Philippe Authier (Bookseller jury), Nils Aziosmanoff (Digital Designer jury), Pascale Breugnot (Television Screenwriter jury), Serge Bromberg (Animated Filmmaker jury), Edmonde Charles-Roux (Writer jury), Jean-Marie Colombani (Print Journalist jury), Peter Knapp (Photographer jury), Pierre Lescure (Film Producer jury), Olivier Stroh (Documentary Filmmaker jury) and Marc Thonon (Musician jury).

Photos of the winners are available from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.

Registration for the 2012 grants will open in the spring
at the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation website:
www.fondation-jeanluclagardere.com