French film financing system under threat
Envied the world over and a pillar of the domestic film industry’s good health, the French film financing model through the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) underwent a surprise attack last Friday at the French National Assembly. Indeed, the vote on a government amendment has not only introduced an upper limit of €705.9m on the CNC’s annual budget (any surplus being poured back into the State’s overall budget), but has above all capped the CNC’s financial resources tax by tax, which would undermine the CNC’s autonomy and disrupt the structure of the redistributive financing system.
Currently, the CNC’s budget is generously funded by taxes on cinema tickets (€130m for 2012 audience figures estimated at 190m admissions), television services (€539m including €229m from Internet access providers) and VOD (€32.5m). Collected directly by the CNC, these taxes are then redistributed to the different stakeholders in the film and audiovisual industry through the automatic funding (almost €400m, of which €86m goes to film producers, over €65m to exhibitors and €30.7m to distributors) and selective funding system. The tax-by-tax capping would, in particular, completely destroy the logic of the automatic redistribution.
In a joint statement, all of the sector’s professional organisations gathered at the Dijon Film Meetings sounded the alarm: "Such an amendment would bring down French cinema’s mutualist funding system which, since 1946, has made it possible to maintain both a strong film industry and dynamic and diverse creation."
Also in attendance at Dijon, CNC president Eric Garandeau described the amendment as a "real blow" and called for "absolutely necessary corrections", emphasising that "the funding account must remain in line with production" and that the amendment breaks the link that means that "through the interplay of funding, the level of expenditure is conditioned by the level of takings".
While professionals are joining forces and counting on the process of parliamentary ping-pong to hold back this threat, this amendment nonetheless remains a political and financial signal that is particularly charged with fears for the future.
(Translated from French)
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