08/03/2005

This first year has been a success for the help-to-creation fund, a regional fund created in 2004 by Corsica and consisting in a yearly budget of 1.5 million euros dedicated to supporting documentaries, TV productions, short films and full-length features. Within a year, Corsica has climbed up to the fourth position in terms of shootings — the first three regions being Ile-de-France (Paris and periphery), Rhône-Alpes (in the South-East), and PACA (around the Riviera). It has notably hosted the sets of two great successes in the French box-office : Jean-Pierre Jeunet’sA Very Long Engagement , for one scene, and L'Enquête corse by Alain Berberian, starring Christian Clavier and Jean Reno, for which 45 technical staff from Corsica and 37 local actors were hired.

According to Corsica Pôle Tournages, Corsica had already hosted film sets for 28 whole weeks in 2003, but the figure has increased a lot since then, for the variety of landscapes Corsica has to offer keeps attracting more and more productions. Right now the Hungarian Béla Tarris shooting L'Homme de Londres in Corsica, thus benefitting from a local help of 100 000 euros. Actor Robin Renucci received the same sum for his first feature as a director, Qui a dit que nous étions morts?, which he will start shooting on the 15th of September 2005. The success of Corsica’s strategy is one example of the increased commitment of local (regional) structures in TV and cinema productions. This process was encouraged by new measures the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) implemented last year : for every two euros spent by the regional fund, the states invests one more —the ceiling being 1 million euros per region, and 10 million euros per year..
Another region, Haute-Normandie, has just called for applications to its local fund dedicated to supporting the production of feature films (with a 200 000-euro budget for 2005). Deadline is on the 25th of March.

(Translated from French)