Born in France in 1956. A graduate in Mathematics and Music, Jérôme Paillard started his career as a musician on the oboe. Shortly afterwards, he started working as a producer with the classical music record company, Erato, going on to become head of the music publishing company, Costallat, where he launched a fine edition of Claude Debussy’s entire works.

In 1991, he became the Director General of Erato Films, alongside Daniel Toscan du Plantier. From this position he was responsible for producing around a dozen movies with filmmakers like Jean-François Amiguet, Mehdi Charef, Maurice Pialat, Satyajit Ray, Jean-Charles Tachella, Andrzej Wajda... He similarly works for Euripide Productions, a company specialising in musical documentaries, and created the distribution company Goutte d’Or.

In 1996, he was named Delegate Director of the Cannes Festival Film Market, the biggest and most important of its kind in the world. Under his management, the Film Market has grown with the new installations at the Palais Riviera, while its number of participants has risen to almost 9,000 and its offer has increased with the creation of www.cannesmarket.com, a permanent Internet service for professionals; the Producer Network, a programme for feature film producers; and the Short Film Corner, a market and platform exclusively dedicated to short films. Jérôme Paillard belongs to several Centre National du Cinéma commissions, teaches at the ESCP-EAP and is a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.