Jean-Michel Arnold, (April 5, 1938 – September 4, 2019)[1] was General Secretary of the Cinémathèque Française, Vice President of UNESCO's IFTC (International Council for Film Television and Audiovisual Communication), founder of the Cinéma du Réel, Director of CNRS Image/Media, General Secretary of RIAVS, and President of CAMERA.
At the instigation of Langlois, he went to the newly independent Algeria and helped found the Cinémathèque Nationale Algérienne,[5] first with Ahmed Hocine and later with Boudjema Karèche.
[13] In 1976, he created the Rencontres Internationales de l’Audiovisuel Scientifique (RIAVS) an annual event lasting several weeks during which scientists, artists, moviemakers, TV producers and the public meet at the Eiffel Tower and UNESCO to celebrate “a débauche of initiatives, projections, discussions and exhibitions”.
This is a prize that is awarded each year to the best movie produced by a film school (in cooperation with CILECT) and for the best movie by a non-professional (in cooperation with UNICA) He is President of CAMERA (Conseil Audiovisuel Mondial pour les Etudes et les Réalisations sur l'Art) an organization known for promoting creativity, education and culture by means of symposia, production and awards.
[19] CAMERA is on the executive committee of UNESCO's IFTC and, in coproduction with the French Ministère des Relations Extérieures, it produced a series of movies on “Les peintres cinéastes”.