Deauville American Film Fest & Le Public Système Director Bruno Barde Suspended Amid Sexual Misconduct Accusations
Deauville American Film Festival Director Bruno Barde has been suspended from his role following accusations by seven women of sexual harassment in report by French investigative website Mediapart.
Barde is also director of the Gerardmer International Fantastic Film Festival and the Reims Thriller Film Festival via his PR agency Le Public Système Cinéma, which organizes the events.
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The agency’s parent company, international communications group Hopscotch, released a statement saying it had suspended Barde in the wake of the allegations in the Mediapart report and hired an independent body to carry out an investigation.
The anonymous allegations in the Mediapart report alledgedly took place 2014 and 2023 and range from sexually inappropriate comments to a proposal to take a bath with a massage.
Contacted by Mediapart, Barde is quoted in the report as saying: “While it may be true that I have a Latin temperament, that I am an aesthete, who is perhaps too easy to compliment, I have never made a remark with a sexual connotation, nor had the slightest gesture or incitement to sexual or sexist nature towards my colleagues… And, if anyone may have felt offended, I sincerely apologize.”
As one of France’s biggest PR agencies, Le Public Système Cinéma represented eight fllms at Cannes this year, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope and David Cronenberg’s Shrouds.
The agency’s Head of Publicity and Communication Alexis Delage-Toriel and Head of Programming Jérôme Lasserre have been appointed as interim managers.
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