Gaumont Marks 130 Years With Academy Museum Retrospective

Gaumont Marks 130 Years With Academy Museum Retrospective

French studio Gaumont is marking its 130th anniversary with a month-long retrospective at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

The program, created in partnership with the Academy Museum, will feature 12 feature films and a selection of 12 short films drawn from Gaumont‘s 1,600-title library. Each title was selected to represent a key moment in the company’s 130-year history, with one program per decade. The series opens on September 11 with a screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1967), introduced at an invitation-only event attended by Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas, Gaumont U.S. president Nicolas Atlan, and Academy Museum director and president Amy Homma.

The retrospective was curated in collaboration with the Academy Museum’s programming team and features such highlights as Max Ophüls’ The Earrings of Madame de… (1953), Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942), and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), as well as the silent-era collection Pioneers of the Screen: Gaumont and the Origins of Motion Pictures, featuring early works by Alice Guy-Blaché and Émile Cohl with live accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.

More recent decades are represented by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s rarely-seen English-language erotic drama Querelle (1982), Maurice Pialat’s artist biopic Van Gogh (1991), the espionage spoof OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006), starring Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist), and Trần Anh Hùng’s foodie romance The Taste of Things (2023).

“This collaboration, which reflects the evolution of cinema itself, offers a rare opportunity to reflect on the legacy of our films and inspire future generations of filmmakers and film lovers alike,” said Dumas.

Atlan added that the retrospective allows Gaumont U.S. to celebrate the company’s history while highlighting its continued role as a global production force.

“This collaboration not only honors their legacy but also reflects the museum’s ongoing dedication to celebrating cinema and making filmmaking accessible across generations and cultures,” said Homma.