Iris Knobloch will be the first woman to preside over the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Her profile, which is both international and very rooted in business, differs radically from that of her predecessors. Pierre Viot was a major state clerk, Gilles Jacob a film critic and Pierre Lescure, who will not complete his third term at the head of the Festival after the 2022 edition, directed Canal +. The CEO of I2PO, a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) dedicated to the entertainment industry since July 2021 is also a director of Lazard and vice-chairman of the board of directors of Accor.
She worked for eleven years at Warner Bros in Los Angeles, then in London before chairing, from 2006 to 2020, the French subsidiary of the Hollywood major. Iris Knobloch was entrusted in October 2020 with the presidency of WarnerMedia in France, Germany, Benelux, Switzerland and Austria. Originally from Germany, this trained lawyer was admitted to the bars of New York, California and Germany. She was elected for three years, Wednesday March 23, to the presidency of the Festival during the board of directors by eighteen votes for, six against, three blank votes and one draw.
Candidate for the Ministry of Culture, she was given a favorite, but her election was not self-evident and had already caused some turmoil. Seven professional film organizations representing cinemas, directors, producers and distributors had complained in a letter to Pierre Lescure of a lack of transparency and dialogue in the election process. The very question of the profile selected and the fact that it had not been discussed before disturbed the opponents. To the point where the postponement of the election was the subject of a vote.
Conflicts of interest
In defending her candidacy, Iris Knobloch quoted François Truffaut: “Cinema is a perfect blend of spectacle and truth” and recalled that Warner had financed a good number of French films. To avoid any risk of conflict of interest, the candidate had provided herself with a detailed consultation with a lawyer and undertook to “step aside” (not to participate in the vote) when the question of the renewal of the partnership with Kering (since I2PO is co-owned by Artémis, the holding company of the Pinault family). In addition, she promised that her SPAC would not invest in distribution or in film or audiovisual production. She is the only administrator to comply with such constraints.
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