Gaëtan Bruel, president of the CNC, discusses the Duanju format for the first time

While traveling in Indonesia and South Korea, Gaëtan Bruel, president of the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) , the public organization responsible for supporting audiovisual creation in France, published a message on LinkedIn in which he mentioned for the first time vertical dramas , these mobile fictions in short, vertical format, also called Duanju , the Chinese term for a genre born in China.

Former director of cultural services at the French Embassy in the United States, Gaëtan Bruel took over as head of the CNC in February 2025. In this position, he is responsible for defining the broad guidelines for public support for film and audiovisual creation in France.

In this publication, he describes contrasting dynamics between Indonesia, where cinema attendance is increasing, and South Korea, which has been in sharp decline since 2019. He sees this as a sign of a shift towards more individual and digital uses.

It is in this context that he emphasizes that "innovations in formats are now coming from Asia (webtoon, vertical drama) with a very prescriptive effect." The mention of vertical dramas is thus part of a broader reflection on the growing influence of Asian content and on the need for France to remain active in this global transformation of formats.

He also points out that the development of streaming does not necessarily imply a drop in cinema attendance, provided that the former is regulated and the latter supported.

This mention, the first from the CNC, is symbolic. It shows that these mobile formats, until now marginal in the French institutional landscape, are beginning to enter the field of reflection of cultural policies.

Source :

• Gaëtan Bruel - Linkedin , July 16, 2025