{"id":37582,"date":"2026-06-27T12:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/?p=37582"},"modified":"2026-06-27T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:33:10","slug":"france-honoured-as-cannes-lions-creative-country-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/france-honoured-as-cannes-lions-creative-country-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"FRANCE HONOURED AS CANNES LIONS CREATIVE COUNTRY OF THE YEAR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>France was named Creative Country of the Year at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with President Emmanuel Macron delivering a video address celebrating the nation\u2019s cultural and creative strength. Macron highlighted reforms, investment, and innovation as drivers of France\u2019s global appeal, while industry leaders praised its creative ecosystem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France closed the 73rd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with a moment of national pride as it was awarded the 2026 Creative Country of the Year accolade. The honour, bestowed annually, recognises a nation\u2019s enduring commitment to creativity as a force for progress and growth.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French President Emmanuel Macron addressed delegates via video on Friday evening, thanking the festival for recognising \u201cour French creativity today\u201d. He described creativity as a national philosophy, flowing through fashion, luxury, and culture, and extending to industries from video games to cinema. \u201cFrench creativity is our ability to combine formal, regal, and poetic, even irreverent, perspective,\u201d he said, adding that the award reflected France\u2019s attractiveness to talent, industries, and capital.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macron attributed this appeal to deliberate reforms, including labour changes, regulatory simplification, and major investments in innovation. He noted that France has been ranked Europe\u2019s most attractive country for foreign investment for seven consecutive years. He also referenced recent financial boosts, including \u20ac350 million for film production under the France 2030 project and \u20ac93 billion pledged by foreign companies at the Choose France summit, particularly in AI and data.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jlvid_container \"><iframe title=\"France, Creative Country of the Year - Message du Pr\u00e9sident Emmanuel Macron\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4yC0YljEIng?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The President concluded by inviting attendees to the Lumiere Summit on 7 September at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, co-chaired by France and South Korea. The summit will celebrate cinema, series, and video games, reinforcing France\u2019s role as a hub for creative industries. \u201cLong live creativity, long live the Republic, and long live France,\u201d Macron declared.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Industry leaders echoed the sentiment. David Leclabart, President of AUSTRALIEGAD and Co-President of the AACC, hailed the award as historic, noting it was the first time France had been named Creative Country of the Year. \u201cThe French touch is a universal language,\u201d he said, emphasising creativity\u2019s power to inspire and connect across cultures.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tiphaine du Plessis, President of BETC FULLSIX and Co-President of the AACC, described creativity as one of France\u2019s greatest strategic assets, driving innovation, competitiveness, and soft power. \u201cCreativity is business. Creativity is change,\u201d she said, stressing its role in sustainability, inclusion, and societal progress. She added that as AI transforms the industry, France remains committed to combining technological innovation with human creativity and cultural vision.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recognition capped a decade of creative excellence and underscored France\u2019s position as a global leader in creativity, with its cultural and creative industries continuing to shape the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France was named Creative Country of the Year at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with President Emmanuel Macron delivering a video address celebrating the nation\u2019s cultural and creative strength. Macron highlighted reforms, investment, and innovation as drivers of France\u2019s global appeal, while industry leaders praised its creative ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[345],"tags":[2209,9344,9343,9345],"class_list":["post-37582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-10-of-the-week","tag-cannes-lions","tag-creative-country","tag-france","tag-the-year"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/France-Honoured-as-Cannes-Lions-Creative-Country-of-the-Year.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37584,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37582\/revisions\/37584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativebrandsmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}