Macron and South Korea's President Pledge Over $1 Billion for Film at Inaugural Lumiere Summit
French President Emmanuel Macron used the opening speech at the first-ever Lumiere Summit on September 7, 2026, to call for global action protecting the future of cinema and to warn that social media platforms pose a threat to artistic expression (Variety).
The daylong summit was co-chaired by Macron and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who echoed Macron's call to shore up cinema for the future. It was held at the Fondation Maeght, a modern-art museum perched in the hilltop village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France (Variety).
The centrepiece announcement was a trade agreement between France and South Korea committing more than $1 billion to boosting film production and animation capabilities across both countries (Variety). No breakdown of how the money will be split or spent was disclosed in the opening session.
The Élysée, France's presidency, published an official communiqué ahead of the summit stating that participants would exchange on the challenges and opportunities for the future of cinema and animated image and commit to concrete actions (Élysée.fr).
The agenda covered film, television series, and gaming, with debates on how the industry should respond to artificial intelligence and how it can compete with social media for audiences' attention (Reuters). The summit ran for a single day during the week of September 7, 2026.
This was the inaugural edition of the Lumiere Summit. The event was first announced in May 2026, when trade press reported France's plan to host an international gathering focused on the future of cinema (Screen Daily). Lee travelled to France specifically for the summit and the film discussion with Macron (Reuters).
Two of the world's most distinctive film cultures sitting at the same table is what gives the summit its weight. France operates one of the most heavily protected national film industries anywhere, with state-mandated support for production and a theatre-first release window written into law. South Korea has become an export powerhouse — its directors win at Cannes, its series top global streaming charts, and its studios now partner across borders. A bilateral commitment of this size links those two pipelines directly.
Macron's framing of social media as a threat to artistic expression places the summit in a broader political fight. France has spent years pushing to regulate large technology platforms, and extending that campaign to cultural policy gives it a new dimension.
