Former Annecy Animation Festival Artistic Director Serge Bromberg Gets One-Year Sentence For Involuntary Manslaughter

Bromberg’s lawyer Emmanuel Mercinier said that they are considering an appeal of the sentence, which he described as “far from lenient.”

In addition to the five-year sentence, Bromberg’s company Lobster Films was fined €150,000, a figure requested by the prosecution.

Bromberg was put on trial for manslaughter, involuntary injury, endangerment of others, and involuntary destruction of property by fire in November of last year. According to France’s TV5 Monde, during the summer of 2020, he was storing nitrate film reels in the basement of a building that didn’t have a fire alarm or appropriate climate controls to house such flammable materials. When the reels caught fire, one person living in an apartment above the basement was killed by the flames and another died jumping from the fourth floor trying to escape.

On the third day of the trial, Bromberg himself took the stand and accepted full responsibility for the fire and the two resulting deaths saying, “I would like to say that I am solely responsible for this tragedy. It is my fault and it is exclusively my fault. I am unforgivable and I hardly dare to ask for forgiveness.”