“An independent undertaking that does not seek to become too enormous”. That is Anne-Marie Faucon’s best definition of the company she set up nearly 30 years ago with Michel Malacarnet. The Utopia film theatres, informed by an anti-establishment spirit and constantly revitalised curiosity, have become genuine bastions of arthouse cinema from Toulouse to Avignon. Despite their unquestioned success, AM.Faucon and M.Malacarnet do not rest on their laurels. This Award is thus a logical reward for their dynamism. After making a splash when they launched their activities in Bordeaux in 1999, where they inaugurated a superb five-screen multiplex in a former church, two years ago they strengthened their position in the Toulouse suburbs, opening a four-screen complex in Tournefeuille. This “cinema in the countryside” to use their own terms, rapidly managed to attract audiences. Its growing success has however not been at the expense of the Utopia Toulouse, which still notched up over 300,000 admissions in 2004, thus demonstrating the potential of what is considered to be one of the most film-loving agglomerations in France. The downtown multiplex was completely refurbished during 2005 in the interests of quality. The Utopia team now already has its sights set on new projects, which are just as atypical and exciting. A single-screen cinema with 100 seats in Aulus-les-Bains, a former spa town in the Ariège region with 150 inhabitants! The second project is in Balma, a town east of Toulouse. Utopia aims to build a four-screen 600-seat multiplex.