DNYUZ
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Television
    • Theater
    • Gaming
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
DNYUZ
No Result
View All Result
Home News

French Producer Couple Hit With Allegations Of Predatory Behaviour & Sexual Harassment

October 17, 2025
in News
French Producer Couple Hit With Allegations Of Predatory Behaviour & Sexual Harassment
495
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Le SPI, one of France’s biggest independent producers’ guilds, has temporarily suspended members Thierry Lounas and Claire Bonnefoy following accusations against the couple of sexual harassment and assault as well as workplace abuse by multiple former and current female employees.

Lounas is a key figure in France’s arthouse and indie genre scene as the founder of the Capricci film group, while his partner Bonnefoy produces under the associated Bobi Lux label, which produced Vincent Must Die.

With its activities spanning production, distribution and publishing, under the banners of Capricci Production, Capricci Films, the Sofilm magazine brand and Capricci Éditions, the Capricci Group is a respected player in France’s arthouse and indie cinema film scene.

Lounas’ producer credits include Giovanni Aloi’s The Third War, Just Philippot’s Netflix acquired The Swarm and Albert Serra’s Last Days of Louis XIV.

He and Bonnefoy are the subject of two bombshell reports from French investigative website Les Jours, recounting allegations of predatory behaviour and sexual harassment against young women trying to break into the film industry as well as workplace abuse.

The first report published on October 12 featured accounts from 12 young women, a number of them former employees and interns, giving accounts of how the couple pushed or attempted to push them into sexual acts and longer-term sexual relationships.

Nine out of 12 of the accusers in the report decided to keep their anonymity and no formal complaints have been lodged to the police against Lounas and Bonnefoy, but Les Jours said these women along with another 13 women had formed a collective to speak up about their mistreatment while working at Capricci and Bobi Lux and had decided to take their story to the press.

One former employee named as Chloe (not their real name), who obtained one of her first jobs in film development at the group, recounted an episode in which the producers embarked on a truth game in which they asked her to lower her jeans and Lounas asked her to sleep with Bonnefoy. She said rebutted their advances.

Another woman named as Elodie (not their real name) gave an account, corroborated by other Capricci Group employees, of how she had fallen under the couple’s influence for several months while working at their production companies, entering into a sexual relationship with Lounas instigated by Bonnefoy, which she was forbidden from talking about with her colleagues.

“I had this constant fear of getting fired,” Elodie was quoted as saying in Les Jours. “I felt like I was at fault and that I couldn’t escape… I often felt like I was experiencing something out of the ordinary and I closed my eyes to the fact that it was slowly consuming me.”

Another woman called Pauline (not their real name) said she had taken drugs with the couple for the first time and that Bonnefoy had also encouraged to her to sleep with Lounas, which she did later while under the influence of drugs.

Lounas and Bonnefoy have denied the accusations, as well as the reports of drug consumption, saying the accounts are lies and suggesting that any intimate interaction with the accusers was purely “consensual”. In the case of Elodie’s account, Bonnefoy suggests Elodie was obsessed with her, while the young woman insists she was under the couple’s influence.

“They were all perfectly consensual,” Lounas was quoted by Les Jours as replying in response to the accusations. “If after the fact, some women may have felt uncomfortable, I am sincerely sorry, but it does not result from consent that was surprised or forced.”

Lounas’ brother Farid Lounas, who is a majority partner and chairman of FTL, the Capricci group’s holding company, was quoted in the first report as saying that an internal investigation had been carried out by an independent auditing company in response to the allegations and that no form of moral harassment or sexual violence had been uncovered.

A second investigative article from Les Jours, published on October 15, countered this report with accounts by 26 current and former Capricci employers detailing examples of abusive behaviour at the company, which included Lounas raging at employees and throwing objects such as his phone and chairs across the office. He has denied the accusations.

The report also included a fresh response from Farid Lounas in which he said his brother had voluntarily stepped down from his roles at Capricci for the good of the group.

It also featured a statement published on October 14 by Capricci Group employees – numbering some 26 people – in which they expressed their “outrage” at the reported “acts of sexual violence”.

They said that the initial internal investigation alluded to in the first Les Jours report had unveiled  “a sense of unease within the company” and welcomed Lounas’ withdrawal.

“We passionately uphold this film-loving label, which has been defending auteur cinema for 25 years, through many channels and in many forms,” read the statement. “This cannot happen in the shadow of individuals accused of acts ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault, but also of workplace violence and moral harassment.”

Deadline has contacted Thierry Lounas directly for comment on the allegations but has not received a reply.

Outside of the company, producers body Le SPI put out a statement on October 13, saying it was aware of the Les Jours article and “the extremely serious accusations” levelled at the producers.

“The SPI has decided to apply the immediate precautionary measure of the temporary suspension of their membership, pending the hearings provided for in its statutes and the receipt of additional evidence that will establish the reality of the facts and, if necessary, impose sanctions that may go as far as exclusion,” said the body.

The guild reaffirmed its commitment to supporting and assisting victims and witnesses of moral, sexual, and gender-based violence.

“We salute the courage of those who speak out, as they help break the silence that still too often protects the perpetrators of this violence, which destroys lives, as well as the trust, security, and ethics that are essential to our sector,” read its statement.

Beyond his role at the Capricci Group, Lounas has also been a key player in growing France’s genre film sector, creating Capricci’s So Film Genre Screenwriting Residence, which has the support of the National Cinema Centre (CNC) and previously helped develop films such as The Swarm.

In 2021, he created the genre focused development and production company Wild West with Wild Bunch International (since renamed as Goodfellas), but the company withdrew from the partnership this past summer after it did not deliver the pipeline of films envisaged under the deal.

The post French Producer Couple Hit With Allegations Of Predatory Behaviour & Sexual Harassment appeared first on Deadline.

Tags: CapricciClaire BonnefoyFranceMeTooThierry Lounas
Share198Tweet124Share
Trump, still convinced Putin ‘wants to end the war,’ lukewarm on Zelenskyy’s request for Tomahawks
News

Trump, still convinced Putin ‘wants to end the war,’ lukewarm on Zelenskyy’s request for Tomahawks

by Politico
October 18, 2025

President Donald Trump isn’t ready to provide the Ukrainian military with the Tomahawk missiles President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the ...

Read more
News

The Israel-Gaza War Always Had an Unacknowledged Third Front

October 18, 2025
News

Iran says restrictions on nuclear programme ‘terminated’ as deal expires

October 18, 2025
News

One Sign of Mamdani’s Surge: The Impersonators Are Out in Droves

October 18, 2025
News

Jimmy Wales Thinks the World Should Be More Like Wikipedia

October 18, 2025
What Will Winter Bring? NOAA Outlook May Offer Some Clues.

What Will Winter Bring? NOAA Outlook May Offer Some Clues.

October 18, 2025
People Need Clean Air. To Get It, They Need Clear Data.

People Need Clean Air. To Get It, They Need Clear Data.

October 18, 2025
Museum of the African Diaspora Forges Ahead

Museum of the African Diaspora Forges Ahead

October 18, 2025

Copyright © 2025.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © 2025.