Two weeks to the day after the tragedy, the families of Nicolas Altmayer and Mathilde Favier return to Paris to bid them farewell. The couple, who bridged two particularly visible worlds—the French film industry and the fashion world—died just hours before the Paris rentrée, in a collision with a heavy truck in Airvault, in the Deux-Sèvres. This Monday, August 31, marks a highly symbolic moment: Nicolas Altmayer and Mathilde Favier are honored on the same day and in the same Paris arrondissement, but at two separate religious ceremonies. A choice that does not stop their families from publicly showing their solidarity in mourning.
For Nicolas Altmayer, discretion was initially the order of the day. In the death notice published by his family in the Carnet du jour du Figaro, relatives merely stated that “the religious ceremony will be held on Monday, August 31, in private,” with no public announcement of the venue.
Several outlets are now reporting that the producer's funeral is taking place this Monday morning at Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. A ceremony attended by family members and notable figures from French cinema.
Nicolas Altmayer leaves behind four children. His brother Éric Altmayer, with whom he had built much of his professional career, is also deeply affected by his passing.
The two brothers had founded and built Mandarin Cinéma together, which had become one of the best-known production companies in contemporary French cinema. Nicolas Altmayer had notably backed popular titles such as Brice de Nice and the OSS 117 franchise, but his work extended beyond comedy.
His catalog also spans a remarkably varied range of works, a sign of a producer who could navigate between popular cinema and auteur-driven projects. After his passing, the National Center for Cinema and Moving Images (CNC) paid tribute to him, underscoring the importance of his contribution to the French cinematic landscape.
The Paris ceremony naturally brought together several figures from cinema who had worked with the producer or had rubbed shoulders with him over the course of his career.
Among the personalities announced or photographed around the funeral are notably Jean Dujardin, Gad Elmaleh, Roschdy Zem, Tahar Rahim, Gilles Lellouche and Joséphine Japy, according to initial information and images released this Monday.
Jean Dujardin's presence carries real weight. Nicolas Altmayer had stood by the actor on several films that helped cement his rise in cinema, starting with Brice de Nice, and then in the adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in OSS 117.
After the news of his death, Jean Dujardin paid tribute on social media to his producer and friend, praising the man who had stood by him for many years.
The disappearance of Nicolas Altmayer had also drawn an institutional response. In its tribute to the producer, the CNC recalled the diversity of a filmography built over several decades with his brother Éric.
A few hours after the ceremony honoring Nicolas Altmayer, it will be Mathilde Favier's relatives' turn to pay him tribute.
His funeral is to be held this Monday, August 31 at 2:30 p.m. at Saint-Sulpice Church, also located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. This time, the venue and time were made public by the family in its obituary notice.
Her children, Héloïse and Carlo Agostinelli, are naturally among the first close relatives to be touched by this final tribute. Many personalities from fashion, luxury and culture are also expected to attend Saint-Sulpice.
The two ceremonies took place just a few hours apart and only a short distance from one another. Several media outlets cite around 500 meters between Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Sulpice. The two families therefore chose different approaches while arranging the farewell on the same day and in the same Parisian district.
The passing of Mathilde Favier at 57 has sent shockwaves through the fashion world. As director of public relations for Christian Dior Couture for more than twelve years, she held a strategic role that remained relatively little known to the general public. Her job included managing the House's relations with celebrities, the media, and the cultural ecosystem that surrounds Dior.
In her portrait publié après sa disparition, Vogue France portrays her as a cornerstone of Parisian fashion and notes that she saw herself, in particular, as a guardian of Dior's house standards.
Throughout her career, Mathilde Favier cultivated ties with a host of international celebrities and held a key backstage role at Dior's runway shows, events and promotional efforts. She was also the sister of Victoire de Castellane, the artistic director of Dior Joaillerie.
His death reverberated across a notably wide professional network. Prominent figures from film, music and fashion paid tribute in the wake of the accident’s announcement.
Just hours before the funeral, Héloïse Agostinelli once again paid tribute to her mother on Instagram. Mathilde Favier’s daughter shared a private exchange with her dating from July 20, less than a month before her passing. In the message, her mother reminded her of her love and of being by her side.
This post follows a string of deeply personal tributes from Mathilde Favier's children dating back to August 17. Closer reports on Monday, August 31 about this latest tribute published just ahead of the ceremony.
Carlo Agostinelli had also spoken out after his mother's death, promising in particular to look after his relatives and to keep alive what she had passed on to them.
One of the main questions of the day is: why did the couple, who died in the same crash, not have a joint ceremony?
So far, the families have offered no public explanation for this decision. It would be premature to read into it a dispute or a wish to symbolically separate the two deceased. The obituary notices, in fact, suggest the opposite.
In the announcement paying tribute to Mathilde Favier, her family says they share in the grief of Nicolas Altmayer's loved ones. A similar note of sympathy appears in the statement issued by the producer's family.
The information published in Le Figaro's Carnet du Jour is, in this respect, the most direct source on the arrangements made by the families. These mutual tributes show that, despite two separate ceremonies, both families chose to share their grief.
The choice can also be understood in light of their respective family histories. Mathilde Favier was the mother of Héloïse and Carlo Agostinelli. Nicolas Altmayer, for his part, was the father of four children. Each had their own family circle, to which were added two professional spheres that were especially important.
The tragedy unfolded on Monday, August 17, 2026 on the D938 road, in Airvault, in the Deux-Sèvres department.
Nicolas Altmayer, 61, and Mathilde Favier, 57, were traveling together when a devastating head-on crash with an oncoming truck occurred. The couple died in the crash. The truck driver survived.
Since the tragedy, several reports have offered divergent versions of the exact sequence of events in the collision. It is therefore important to distinguish the initial accounts from what has been legally established.
According to initial reports the day after the tragedy, investigators were seeking to determine the exact trajectories of the two vehicles and the circumstances under which the head-on collision occurred.
More recently, new press reports have pointed to a three-lane road, an overtaking maneuver and a possible lane departure. These details, however, do not by themselves allow for a definitive determination of who was responsible for the crash.
The justice system must precisely illuminate these shadows. An investigative inquiry for involuntary manslaughter by a driver has been opened after the collision. The truck driver was placed in custody as part of the probe.
According to press reports, the driver tested negative for both alcohol and drugs. Investigators will now work to reconstruct the vehicle’s trajectory, speeds, and maneuvers in the seconds immediately before the collision.
The stakes are high, as several accounts of how the accident unfolded have circulated since August 17. Un point publié ce lundi 31 août notes that the precise circumstances remain under discussion and that the judicial investigation must still determine who is responsible.
It would be premature to regard either driver as at fault until the investigation has published its conclusions.
Beyond the circumstances of the crash, the simultaneous disappearance of Mathilde Favier and Nicolas Altmayer sent an unusual ripple through two circles that regularly intersect in Paris: fashion and cinema.
He had spent decades at the heart of French film production. She worked behind the scenes at one of the world’s most renowned fashion houses.
Their careers explain the breadth of tributes that have poured in since their deaths. French cinema honored a producer who backed a string of popular successes, while the fashion world paid tribute to a woman whose work was built on personal relationships and loyalty to the house she represented.
This Monday, August 31, 2026, has become a moment of farewell. Two ceremonies, two families and two professional communities unfold in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Nicolas Altmayer and Mathilde Favier are not being laid to rest at the same funeral, but the decision to hold both ceremonies on the same day, just a few hundred metres apart, along with the messages exchanged by their families, gives the day a shared significance.
Two weeks after their sudden deaths, French cinema and the fashion world thus bid farewell, almost simultaneously, to two of their most well-known backstage figures.
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Dates and Opening Time
On August 31, 2026
Location
Saint-Germain-des-Prés church
Place Saint-Germain des Prés
75006 Paris 6
Route planner
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