France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) has appointed Sébastien Cauchon as its first ever dedicated Academy Awards liaison to support French candidates in the running across the various categories of the 99th edition.

The newly created position will see him provide guidance and expertise to French film teams lining up for an awards season run.

He will have a special focus on Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur which is France’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category this year.

“In the coming weeks, initiatives will be organized to raise awareness about the Academy’s processes and campaign strategies, alongside a series of events showcasing the French films in contention,” said the CNC in statement announcing the appointment.

Cauchon was Director of Communications at French export body Unifrance from 2013 to 2020 and has since worked with a raft of companies as an independent awards and international strategy advisor under his Cinema Collectors banner.

He has previously supported the awards campaigns of The Father, The Substance and Deux, and is also attached to Bunker this year.

The country last won in the Best International Feature Film Category in 1993 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine, while it made it to the nomination stage for the 2026 and 2025 awards with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez.

French productions and talent still often figure highly in the awards season winning prizes outside of the international feature category.

In recent years, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won Best Original Screenplay for An Anatomy of Fall, while local productions Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, made it to the nomination stage in the Best Animated Feature Film category in the 2026 Oscars.

Cauchon’s appointment was announced during a conference on the export of French film and audiovisual works at the CNC HQ in Paris, in partnership with Unifrance.

It was the first in a series of meetings focused on France’s strategy for the export of its film and audiovisual, aimed at devising a detailed road map which will be published in early 2027.

“Developed collaboratively, the roadmap aims to strengthen the international dimension at every relevant stage, from screenwriting to distribution, while incorporating anticipated changes within the CNC and the industry as a whole,” said the CNC.

“A key objective is to modernize direct export support mechanisms while enhancing international backing for works across all levels of the industry.”

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