The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation reveals its 2021 winners

Grants awarded to 10 talented young professionals in the arts!

© Grabuge / Sébastien Dubois-Decock / Lagardère

For its 32^nd consecutive year, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation has presented grants (in amounts between €10,000 and €35,000) to young creatives who submitted audacious and original projects in the following categories: Documentary Filmmaker, Animation Filmmaker, Writer, Print Journalist, Bookseller, Musician – Contemporary Music, Photographer and Film Producer and Television Screenwriter.

In these unprecedented times, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation nevertheless maintained its significant support for young French-speaking talents.

The grants, awarded since 1990, give young creatives under the age of 30 (or 35 for the Bookseller, Photographer and Television Screenwriter grants) both financial support and the time they need to bring their projects to fruition, plus the opportunity to develop relationships with the people on the judging panels, who are members of the media and arts communities.

The 2021 winners

Documentary Filmmaker Grant (€15,000)
Victoire Bonin, 28 and Lou du Pontavice, 29
Project: Les veilleurs, a feature documentary about Chinese fathers who leave everything behind to accompany their only child to Beijing in the hope of a better future.

Animation Filmmaker Grant (€20,000)
Émilie Tronche, 25
Project: create Samuel, an animated musical series telling the story of a ten-year-old boy who falls in love for the first time.

Writer Grant (€20,000)
Thomas Flahaut, 30
Project: writing his third novel, Camille s’en va, the story of a woman who decides to disappear without leaving any traces.

Print Journalist Grant (€10,000)
Kevin Poireault, 28
Project: investigate the role of telecom operators in Internet outages in authoritarian regimes.

Bookseller Grant (€30,000)
Clotilde Papinot, 29
Project: redesign the offering and create reading and break areas at the Le Vrai Lieu bookstore in Gradignan (Gironde).

Musician Grant – Contemporary Music (€15,000)
Marc Gros Cannela, aka Fils Cara, 26
Project: produce Amaretto, his first album, and create a live group to accompany the tour for this album.

Photographer Grant (€10,000)
Marion Péhée, 32
Project: carry out a photojournalism project on khat baronesses in the Horn of Africa.

Film Producer Grant (€35,000)
Simon Bleuzé, 30
Project: produce Jangal, the first feature film of his production company Mean Streets.

Television Screenwriter Grant (€15,000)
Anton Likiernik, 30
Project: write the comedy En orbite, a series made up of nine 26-minute episodes.

The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant winners are selected by prestigious juries presided over by such high-profile individuals active in the media, the arts and culture as: Catherine Alvaresse, France Télévisions Documentary Unit Director (Documentary Filmmaker judging panel); Jérôme Béglé, Le Point Deputy Editorial Director (Writer judging panel); Caroline Benjo, Co-manager and Producer of the firm Haut et Court (Television Screenwriter judging panel); Serge Bromberg, Lobster Films CEO (Animation Filmmaker judging panel); Laurent Didailler, Pias France Managing Director (Musician – Contemporary Music judging panel); Pierre Lescure, Cannes Film Festival President (Film Producer judging panel); Cyril Petit, Editorial Director of Le Journal du Dimanche (Print Journalist judging panel); Sam Stourdzé, Director, Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis (Photographer judging panel) and Pascal Thuot, Managing Firector of the bookstore Millepages in Vincennes (Bookseller judging panel).

The winners of this 2021 edition have thus joined the 332 other individuals who have won a grant from the Foundation’s since 1990. A large number of them have since transformed this first helping hand into great success. For example, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, whose novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (Philippe Rey/Jimssan), written with the support of the 2018 Writer grant, went on to win the Prix Goncourt, and Florian Zeller (winner of the 2002 Writer grant) saw his début film The Father win two Oscars.

Applications for the 2022 grant awards will be accepted starting this spring at www.fondation-jeanluclagardere.com.
Applicants will have until June 4, 2022 to submit their dossier.