Awarded with the 7th Fabienne Vonier Prize

PostED ON 19.10.2022

For her audacity, her vision, the talent she has nurtured and continues to support, as well as the impact that ARP Sélection has had on the history of art house cinema, Michèle Halberstadt received the 7th Fabienne Vonier Prize, created in the memory of the co-founder of the Pyramide company, producer and distributor Fabienne Vonier, a major figure in French and international cinema.

“Fabienne Vonier was a great lady of cinema and also a friend. I am very proud to receive this award at a festival that is all about the love of cinema and sharing, two words that perfectly define the profession of a distributor.”
Michèle Halberstadt, upon receiving the Prize.

Initially a journalist, Halberstadt started out at Europe 1, while studying at Science Po and the Faculty of Law. She then moved on to Radio 7 and wrote her first articles for Libération and Actuel, before joining the editorial staff of Première as head of American cinema, for which she interviewed Kubrick, Redford, De Niro and Nicholson, before becoming its editor-in-chief. Under her leadership, the American version of the magazine was launched. After turning down offers from Gaumont and Ciby 2000, she decided to launch a film distribution company with Laurent Pétin, inspired by the American model of Sony Classics. Since then, the structure set up by the duo has become a leading player in the art-house sector in France, as well as a virtuous production and distribution model, with major public successes (‘Taxi’) and prestigious awards (the Palmes d'Or for ‘Rosetta’ by the Dardennes and ‘Farewell My Concubine’ by Chen Kaige; the Golden Lion for ‘The Story of Qiu Ju’, by Zhang Yimou). Together, they launched Chinese and Hong Kong cinema in France by discovering Wong Kar-wai and distributing the films of Johnnie To, as well as the Iranian films of Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof. They have built special relationships with a number of great auteurs such as François Dupeyron, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Atom Egoyan, Steven Soderbergh, and Jerzy Skolimowski, whose new film ‘EO’ they are distributing and will premiere in Lyon. Michèle Halberstadt is also a successful author, whose latest novel, ‘Née quelque part’, was published by Albin Michel in 2021. She is a member of the Oscar Academy.

 © JL Mège / Institut Lumière

Created with the involvement of her husband Francis Boespflug, the Fabienne Vonier Prize has been awarded since 2016 to producer Margaret Menegoz and distributor Régine Vial, to the founders of the production and distribution company Haut et Court, Carole Scotta and Caroline Benjo, to producer Michèle Ray-Gavras, to Véronique Cayla, then President of Arte and President-elect of the César Awards, to Sophie Seydoux, President of the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation, and last year to Brigitte Maccioni, President of UGC.