The Ma classe au cinéma program is the first artistic and cultural education initiative through cinema in France. Jointly supported by the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Culture, it offers students from kindergarten to high school the opportunity to discover works in theaters, accompanied by educational activities in class. Since the start of the 2023 school year, several adjustments have been made to broaden its scope and revise its operation.
Governance and funding of Ma classe au cinéma: a fragmented management
What distinguishes Ma classe au cinéma from most national education projects is the complexity of its governance. The program relies on a partnership between national structures (CNC, ministries) and local coordinators (DRAC, rectorates, local associations). Each territory organizes its own programming, training, and registration calendar.
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The report by Édouard Geffray, submitted on May 15, 2025, to the ministers of National Education and Culture, describes a fragmented funding subject to fluctuations. Funding sources come from state credits, local authorities, and sometimes contributions from the schools themselves. This dispersion makes budget monitoring difficult and creates disparities from one department to another.
To delve deeper into the objectives and general framework of the program, the Ma Classe 2023 program on EtudiActiv details the access modalities according to school levels and academies.
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However, this decentralized structure has an advantage: it allows for the selection of films to be adapted to local realities. A rural school without a nearby cinema does not benefit from the same conditions as a Parisian institution. Local coordinators act as mediators between teachers, cinema operators, and distributors.
Educational activities in class: what the Geffray report recommends changing
The 2025 report highlights a recurring limitation of the program: the classroom work before and after the screening remains uneven. Some teachers have access to comprehensive educational files, while others find themselves with few usable resources to prepare their students for discovering a film.
The report’s recommendations lean towards a hybrid program. The idea is to articulate three distinct phases:
- The time in the theater, which remains the core of the program: the screening of works chosen for their artistic quality and accessibility according to the students’ age
- The classroom work, with structured educational sequences (image analysis, writing, debate) to anchor the outing in school learning
- A complementary digital component, with online resources allowing teachers to extend the work on the film after the session
This three-phase articulation is not new in principle, but its concrete implementation largely depends on the training resources available for teachers. The report notes a weakened training model: dedicated training times for image education have decreased in several academies in recent years.
Teacher self-censorship, an identified risk
The Geffray report mentions a less visible phenomenon: teachers who refrain from enrolling their class in the program for fear of negative reactions regarding the choice of films. This risk of self-censorship, linked to the context of tensions around certain cultural content in schools, poses a direct threat to the diversity of works offered.
The available data do not allow for measuring the exact extent of this phenomenon. Field feedback varies on this point according to academies and levels (primary or secondary). The report recommends enhanced support for teachers to secure their educational choices.
Attendance at the Ma classe au cinéma program: a decline in middle school
The “Ma classe au cinéma” component covers three historical variations: École et cinéma (primary level), Collège au cinéma, and Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma. Attendance trends are not uniform.
The Geffray report describes a contrasting evolution that fails to mask a substantial decline in middle school. The primary level maintains relatively stable participation, driven by the habit of school outings in elementary schools. In high school, the program reaches a more limited but often willing audience.
In middle school, the situation is different. Scheduling constraints, competition with other school projects, and the logistical difficulty of outings for large institutions hinder registrations. The safety of travel and the organization of school trips also weigh in the decision-making of teaching teams.
The goal of gradual generalization
The report sets a course: to generalize image education for all students by relying on Ma classe au cinéma as the main lever. This ambition requires resolving issues of funding, training, and coordination between national and local actors.
The program’s place in official curricula remains described as “latent” by the report. In other words, cinema education is not absent from the texts, but it does not benefit from a binding time or disciplinary framework. Teachers who engage with it do so on a voluntary basis, which mechanically limits the program’s reach.
Ma classe au cinéma abroad: the Italian case
The program is not limited to the national territory. The French Institute in Italy has been deploying an international version of Ma classe au cinéma for several years, focused on Francophone cinema. In 2024-2025, more than 4,000 Italian students participated in screenings across the country.
This international component operates differently: films are screened in their original version with subtitles, and the educational support includes a linguistic objective in addition to artistic education. Registered schools benefit from specific training for teachers of French as a foreign language.
The Ma classe au cinéma program, in its 2023 version and recent developments, remains an ambitious initiative whose success depends less on its stated objectives than on the ability of local actors to translate them into practice. The Geffray report provides a clear diagnosis, but the concrete means to address it remain to be confirmed in upcoming budgetary decisions.