Finland

[FR] Conventions Reinforce Presence of French Cinema in Other Countries

IRIS 2014-6:1/21

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

The 67^th Cannes Festival provided an occasion for French cinema to develop its presence outside its national borders. Two conventions aimed at promoting French cinema worldwide were signed on 18 May 2014 by Aurélie Filippetti, Minister for Culture, and Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of State with responsibility for foreign trade. The first, signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and the Centre national de la cinématographie et de l'image animée (National Centre of Cinematography - CNC), in conjunction with the Institut Français and Unifrance Film, involves digitising cinema theatres within the French cultural network outside France. France does in fact have an international network of multipurpose halls among its cultural establishments dedicated to the promotion of French culture outside France. These halls constitute an essential tool for the non-commercial diffusion of France’s cinematographic heritage, the promotion of recent films and the international renown of the French image industry. The aim of the convention, by supporting the digitisation of the cinema venues used by the French network in other countries, is thus modernisation and the circulation of French creative work. The CNC will make a financial contribution to the digitisation of the cinema venues used by the Institut Français institutions in Abidjan, Barcelona, Beirut, Budapest, Dakar, Hanoi, Istanbul, Jakarta, Cairo, Libreville, Madrid, Phnom Penh, Rio de Janeiro, Sofia, Tokyo and Yaoundé. About 30 cinemas should have been digitised by 2015. The aim of the second convention, signed by the Institut Français and the CNC, is to encourage the promotion of educational arrangements in other countries regarding the cinema. Its purpose is to create a young audience and develop interest in the French cinema, to be achieved by the French diplomatic cultural network and its partners screening a programme of films.

For its part, the CNC launched two bilateral funds in Cannes, to support co-productions with Greece and Portugal, just two months after the Chaillot Forum (see IRIS 2014-5/19) set these projects in motion. Two conventions have been signed for this by Frédérique Bredin, President of the CNC, and Grigoris Karantinakis, President of the Greek Film Centre (GFC), on the one hand, and Seras Pereira, President of Portugal’s Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual (ICA), on the other. Created for a three-year period (2014-2016), these funds make it possible to allocate, before production, non-repayable subsidies for cinematographic projects falling within the scope of the co-production agreements between France and Greece on the one hand and Portugal on the other. The aid will be capped at 50% of the estimate for the film, with a maximum of EUR 500 000. It may be combined with other public aid, up to the limit of the intensity ceilings for aid laid down in the European Commission’s ‘Cinema Communication’ directive. For the first year, the budget for the fund amounts to 1 million euros (including EUR 800 000 from the CNC and EUR 200 000 from its Greek and Portuguese counterparts), which should make it possible to provide aid for three to six full-length films.