A former leader of the 50/50 Collective acquitted of a charge of ault

Film producer Juliette Favreul Renaud, a former head of the feminist ociation Le Collectif 50/50, which works for parity in the cinema, was released on Tuesday May 23 by the Paris court. She was accused of ly aulting actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne. During the trial in March, the prosecution had requested eight months in prison against the producer, as well as an obligation of care and a ban on contacting the complainant. Nor M^me Favreul Renaud ni M^me Beausson-Diagne were not present at the hearing.

The facts date back to March 11, 2022 during an evening in the Parisian apartment of a member of the ociation. The day after this evening, the actress, now 50 years old – instigator of the movement #metoo in Africa − had filed a complaint against the producer, two years her senior. The complainant accused the producer of having ped her hand on her thigh “until I touch her sex” through her tights, when she was in a state of obvious intoxication. Following this complaint, the producer had been placed in police custody for nearly forty-eight hours. The court challenged the legality of this custody.

No direct witness corroborated Nadège Beausson-Diagne’s version of the facts, but people present during the evening claimed to have seen the actress “in a state of bewilderment”.

” VSruined my life”

During the trial, the producer admitted to having run her hand through the actress’ afro hair. “I didn’t know it was a postcolonial and offensive gesture. I’ve always had a complex about my hair… I put my hand in his hair… and that’s it”she had said, sobbing, at the bar. “It ruined my life. I didn’t do anything to her except put my hand in her hair.”she insisted.

His lawyers, Céline Lasek and Fanny Colin, had denounced a “sloppy, unfair, unbalanced and unfair investigation, conducted solely against the accused” and asked “full cancellation” of the procedure.

The case had caused the explosion of the feminist ociation Le Collectif 50/50, which had made itself known during the 2018 edition of the Cannes Film Festival by bringing together 82 women on the steps, to denounce “the gl ceiling” in the world of cinema. Eighty-two was then the number of female directors selected in competition for the Palme d’Or since the first edition of the Festival, in 1946, against 1,688 men.