Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie En Rose”) dazzled at the 2026 L’Alliance GALA, which was held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the recap.
The Gala de L’Alliance New York celebrates the enduring ties between the French speaking world and American culture. Last night’s event raised over $2.3 million.
The evening kicked off with a cocktail reception, followed by a seated dinner and live auction in the Grand Ballroom, featuring cuisine from a lineup of chefs and the presentation of the Trophée de L’Alliance and Trophée des Arts awards. Marion Cotillard was recognized with the Trophée des Arts at the GALA.
The celebration continued with an after-party in The Plaza’s Palm Court, where guests enjoyed dancing and late-night refreshments. It featured a DJ set by French producer Kungs, who transformed the space into a dance floor.
Tatyana Franck
Tatyana Franck, President of L’Alliance New York, remarked, “It feels very exciting. It’s a very important moment for L’Alliance New York, it’s our biggest GALA of the year and we really want to celebrate joie de vivre and art de vivre at its fullest.”
“Today is exactly that because we’re going to celebrate a huge star of French cinema, Marion Cotillard, as well as an entrepreneur who has made a success like an American dream. We will have three star Michel, Chef Arnaud Lallement, who’s coming from Champagne with the mythic Daniel Boulud and Tara Khattar,” Franck said.
“So, it will be really extraordinary and it will be like a dream. We really want the public to feel like being in a dream. Bilal Hamdad is an Algerian painter, and he is traveling through New York for the first time to present his hyper-realist painting of Parisian café. So it will be really a touch between Paris and New York.
“We will have a little surprise of Zoé Clauzure, who’s a rising singer in France. She’s just 16 years old. But she already won the Eurovision Junior and she’s going to sing ‘La Vie en Rose’ to celebrate Marion Cotillard,” Franck noted.
“I want people to really feel that French culture is a culture of education, it’s a culture of joy and of aesthetic and beauty,” she added.
Chef Arnaud Lallement
On being a part of this GALA, Chef Arnaud Lallement stated, “It’s an exceptional day for me. I am French, I live in Champagne, all my life I have worked in gastronomy, and today I am invited to have dinner at the Gala d’Alliance. It’s really a great opportunity for me.”
“It’s so beautiful. It’s everyday life today. It’s all around France. Marion Cotillard is getting honored today… she is a great actress who has done so much for France, for cinema, for television. So, it’s really an exceptional chance to have her with us tonight,” he noted.
“Today, there are a lot of people. Everyone is gathered around L’Alliance. It’s a very important cause. It’s part of the GALA dinners that are very important in the United States, in New York, all over the world. Again, it’s an incredible chance to be able to participate, to be able to bring something to this evening,” the acclaimed chef acknowledged.
Proceeds from the evening support L’Alliance’s mission to promote French language and francophone culture through educational and artistic programming.
Pierre Donnersberg, Co-Chairman of Diot-Siaci Group, is the Trophée de L’Alliance recipient. Featured chefs include Daniel Boulud, award-winning chef and restaurateur, and Arnaud Lallement, three-Michelin-star chef and owner of L’Assiette Champenoise. Tara Khattar is providing creative direction, and Bilal Hamdad is the featured artist.
The annual Gala de L’Alliance New York is L’Alliance’s largest fundraising event, gathering more than 500 international guests to celebrate the honorees of the Trophée des Arts and Trophée de L’Alliance awards. Funds raised during the evening support L’Alliance New York’s educational and artistic programming, which inspires and engages a wide range of audiences.
The event, which is held under the patronage of the French Ambassador to the US and the French Consul General in New York City, kicks off with a cocktail hour and silent auction, followed by a seated dinner, live auction, and an after-party.
Background on L’Alliance New York
L’Alliance New York is an independent, not-for-profit organization headquartered in NYC. They are committed to providing audience and students with engaging French language classes and audacious multi-disciplinary programming that celebrates the diversity of Francophone cultures and creativity around the world.
Their mission is to spread “Joie De Vivre.”
They are a welcoming and inclusive community for all ages and all backgrounds, where people can meet, learn, and explore the richness of our heritages and share new discoveries. They strive to amplify voices and build bridges from the entire francophone world to New York and beyond.
They are the leading educational, cultural, and arts institution where people from all over the world connect through our engaging and immersive French language classes and world-class cultural programming.
To learn more about L’Alliance New York, visit its official website and follow them on Instagram.
