A look back at the 12th edition of the Pierre Angénieux
Tribute
« PIERRE ANGÉNIEUX TRIBUTE»
to DION BEEBE (A.C.S.*, A.S.C*)
(Australia)
and
« ANGÉNIEUX SPECIAL ENCOURAGEMENT »
to EUNSOO CHO
(South Corea)
Friday, May 23, 2025 at 8:00 pm
Salle Buñuel, Palais des Festivals
As every year for the past twelve years, the Pierre Angénieux Tribute - named after the prestigious French creator and manufacturer of world-renowned cinematographic lenses Angénieux, was held on the eve of the closing of the Cannes Film Festival, May 23, 2025.
From left to right: Dominique Rouchon, Marisa Berenson, Suzel Pietri, Carole Bouquet, Dion Beebe, Emmanuel Sprauel, Eunsoo Cho and Ji-Min Park @Pauline Maillet
This official partner ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, presented by Charlotte Lipinska and opened by Thierry Frémaux, was an opportunity to celebrate australian director of photography Dion Beebe (A.C.S.*, A.S.C.*), who had given a masterclass the day before.
The honorary godmother of this exceptional evening was the French actress Carole Bouquet.
Emmanuel Sprauel, President of the Angénieux brand and Carole Bouquet, presented the Pierre Angénieux Tribute to Dion Beebe - an Optimo Ultra Compact 21-56 FF zoom specially engraved with his name - which will allow him to express his extraordinary creativity in new ways.
*ACS : Australian Cinematographers Society ; *A.S.C. : American Society of Cinematographers
“Dear Dion, we are particularly happy and proud to honor you today
and to be able to associate you with this tribute to Pierre Angénieux.
Thank you, dear Dion, for your availability among us, for your attention, your humility, and for sharing with us through your work your sense of the things in life.”
Emmanuel Sprauel
From left to right: Carole Bouquet, Dion Beebe and Dominique Rouchon @Pauline Maillet
“For actors, light gives us talent or not. If the light is right, we are right.
When it is not the good one, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t even want to play anymore, I need it. So, dear Dion, your craft is essential to my work.
I am nothing without you.”
Carole Bouquet
Furthermore, for the 7th year since 2018, Angénieux continues to encourage the work of a young cinematographer during this ceremony.
South Korean cinematographer Eunsoo Cho received the Angénieux Special Encouragement - a special grant that gives her the opportunity to use the best of Angénieux technology for the images of her next project - from the hands of the French-Korean visual artist and actress Ji-Min Park, by Dominique Rouchon, Managing Director, Angénieux International Sales-Marketing & Communication and Suzel Pietri, Managing Director of Orbis Media, which has been organizing this award alongside Angénieux since its creation.
“For 12 years now, our partnership with the Festival de Cannes
has been the occasion to put cinematographers at the place they deserve
in the biggest film festival of the world.
This year, we pay tribute to Dion Beebe and we encourage Eunsoo Cho
but through them, we also honor their countries, Australia and South Korea.
Their presence is the symbol of the footprint of the Angénieux brand in the world
but also of Thales group. Angénieux has been present in South Korea and Australia
for decades and Thales has close relationships with Australia, with several Thales companies there, and with South Korea through Thales Korea.“.
Dominique Rouchon
From left to right: Dominique Rouchon, Eunsoo Cho and Ji-Min Park @Pauline Maillet
“I am particularly pleased to be able to highlight the work of a cinematographer
whose work is recognized not only in Korea, her home country, but also internationally. Eunsoo Cho is not only a cinematographer with great poetry,
but she is also a director with a strong vision.
In this profession where the place of women is rare,
I am all the more honored to present this award to Eunsoo Cho in order to promote
and encourage the emergence of contemporary creation”
Ji-Min Park
“I am especially honored to receive this award alongside Dion Beebe.
Sharing this moment with you tonight is a genuine privilege and I am also
deeply grateful for Angénieux support of new voices and for shining a light on women cinematographers. In Korea there are not so many of us working in this field so this recognition is incredibly meaningful for me and for others who might
be hoping to follow a similar path”
Eunsoo Cho
The ceremony was marked by an editing of sumptuous extracts from films lit by Eunsoo Cho, then by Dion Beebe, including Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Collateral, Holy Smoke…
The ceremony concluded with a particularly moving moment for Dion Beebe with the screening of video testimonies from personalities who crossed his path and who wished to congratulate their friend. Among them, directors Gillian Armstrong (Charlotte Gray), Niki Caro (Memory and Desire), Mira Nair (My Own Country), Jane Campion (Holy Smoke, In the Cut), directors Michael Mann (Collateral, Miami Vice), Ang Lee (Gemini Man), Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine, Tony Bennett: An American Classic, Into the Woods, The Snowman, Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid), producer Marc Platt (Nine, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid), and actors Harvey Keitel (Jane Campion's Holy Smoke), Jaafar Jackson (Antoine Fuqua's Michael) and Tom Cruise (Michael Mann's Collateral and Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow Special), who all praised Dion Beebe's work and expressed their pride in seeing their friend receive this prestigious award in Cannes.
Dion Beebe @Pauline Maillet
“I’m sincerely humble to be joining such an esteemed group of cinematographers
and artists who previously received this award : Darius Kondji, a genius,
Santosh Sivan last year, Ed Lachman, Roger Deakins, all incredible artists amongst
the many others, and Bruno (Delbonnel) of course.
It is really meaningful for me to receive this recognition from Angénieux
who has been a part of my filmmaking career from the beginning. I’m moved by the fact that this award not only seeks to highlight and elevate the art and the craft of cinematography but also recognizes a truly international community of filmmakers that connects us all. And Eunsoo, I think, is a shining example of this community”
Dion Beebe
The ceremony concluded with a special moment:
the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Angénieux brand!
“After 38 years in the company, I am the last one who had the privilege
to work closely with the Angénieux family, and my thoughts go to them tonight and particularly to Mr Pierre Angénieux, our founder, a genius inventor,
and Bernard Angénieux, who introduced me with the cinema world.
Companies have ups and downs, but at the end of the day, what counts is
the pursuit of the vision of their creator. Since Thales bought the company in 1994,
the group management and I have been at the service of
the brand and of Pierre’s vision…It is now time for me to show you 90 years of Angénieux through images, because at the end of the day, images are the brand’s reason to be. We are at the service of cinema”
Dominique Rouchon
A screening of film clips shot in particular with Angénieux zoom lenses followed - a dizzying selection of films, each more cult than the last, including I Accuse, by Abel Gance, Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean, Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone, Death in Venice by Luchino Visconti, The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick, Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, Dangerous Liaisons by Stephen Frears, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Mike Newell, The Revenant by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Trier, Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard.
To close his exceptional evening, Dominique Rouchon invited Marisa Berenson, the very talented actress in Death in Venice and Barry Lyndon, to give the final note:
"When one does a movie, apart from the director,
the first person one wants to love and have an intimacy with is the cinematographer.
It’s a wonderful adventure to be filmed with a benevolent gaze.
This lens that was invented by Pierre Angénieux just gives this extra dimension
so that you can go into people's souls and their hearts.
When you see films like that with talents like Dion Beebe, John Alcott or Pasqualino De Santis, there is nothing more wonderful than being able to work with people like that.
So I am thrilled to meet you Dion and I hope one day
I’ll be under your beautiful “regard” and bravo to this incredible wonderful invention
that has revolutionized the world of image in the cinema for so long.
Congratulations to the winners because it is very moving to see your work.
I do really love you”.
Marisa Berenson
From left to right: Dominique Rouchon and Marisa Berenson @Pauline Maillet
Download all the photos of the ceremony!
(©Pauline Maillet or ©Olivier Vigerie)
From left to right: Ji-Min Park, Eunsoo Cho, Dominique Rouchon, Marisa Berenson, Dion Beebe, Carole Bouquet, Emmanuel Sprauel and Emmanuel Vialle @Olivier Vigerie
Click on the image to download it !
© Angénieux
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