PROFILES

The 55th edition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, this big event focused on the small screen promises more stars, more entertainment and closer connections with the public. A policy initiated three years ago by Festival CEO Laurent Puons.

The desire to cater to a broader public seems to be bearing fruit.
Laurent Puons: Over the last three years we have indeed implemented a strategy to make the festival less confidential. For example, up to 2012 the various juries were made up of people who were renowned internationally but only in the TV industry. So in agreement with Prince Albert II, the festival's honorary president, we began to invite actors and producers known to the general public, for example Patrick Duffy heads this year's jury for the TV Series Golden Nymph awards, and Eric Close, who was excellent in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated American Sniper, leads the Television Films jury. Previously we've had Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jane Seymour, Christophe Lambert and Tchéky Karyo.

Actors known mainly for their cinema careers...
Yes, because that's the trend; more and more cinema actors, producers and directors are working on TV series – Kevin Spacey, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Tom Hanks. That wasn't the case a few years back when cinema and TV were very separate worlds. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise doing a series.

Interesting for a festival that allows the public to actually meet the stars.
That's one of our strong points. And because we want to increasingly open the festival up to the public, this year we're organising more events specifically for them. Lots more autograph sessions, for example, and including blockbuster series.

This successful revamp encompasses the competition itself too?
We made the choice of reducing the number of programmes in competition. Previously there were nine to 12 in each category, which made it rather difficult to invite the main stars of each series. But with 5 or 6 in competition we're able
to have a good spread of stars, including from some of the present blockbusters, naturally. Last year we invited Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the most prolific producers in the history of tele­vision and cinema, to present him with a Golden
Nymph for his career. That he accepted was a great accolade for us.

I imagine you're a TV series fan!
Obviously! They're incredibly addictive. If you miss a football match you can deal with it, even if you're a supporter, but missing an episode of your favourite series is really unbearable! The first time my wife and I watched Walking Dead she said: "We'll never manage to watch zombies for an entire series." Five seasons later... !

The TV series has really earned its letters patent.
As I said, there's no frontier any more between movies and television series. Investment is growing all the time and so are audiences; each episode of Game of Thrones is watched by 12 million viewers – that's incredible! It's a real mutation of the genre, and generally speaking it's affecting the whole of television.

You've mentioned the advent of digital platforms.
With the development of new services such as Netflix and the proliferation of screens on smartphones, tablets and computers, over the next two or three years I think we'll see a revolution in the way we watch TV. In fact this year, for the first time, we're organising a forum to analyse the growth of this trend and this market. The Content & Multiscreen Experience, as we've called it, will include talks, round tables, key notes etc.

So the market has a fine future ahead of it?
That's why we have to get it right. My aim for the next five years is to turn our Festival into the tele­vision counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival. The day Boulevard Princesse Grace, alongside the Grimaldi Forum where the TV festival is held, is as packed with people as the Croisette, we'll have succeeded!

Par Alexandre Benoist