France made 106 co-productions with 34 countries in 2014
- Last year, 23 European territories and 11 from the rest of the world were involved in feature films that qualified as French
Despite the overall scaling back of funding (read the article), the French film industry has once again demonstrated its extremely high level of openness to the rest of the world, with 41.1% of the 258 features registered in 2014 being international co-productions, according to the annual report unveiled by the CNC.
106 co-productions with 34 countries saw the light of day last year (as against 116 the previous year and a record 129 in 2012), with 51 of them majority French (four fewer than the previous year) and 55 minority French (six fewer), making a total investment of €394.14 million (a substantial fall of 28.6%, taking the figure down to its lowest level since 2001); within this total, French investment (€198.25 million) and foreign investment (€196.69 million) reduced by roughly the same proportions.
Europe is still France’s usual area to co-produce with. With 36 films (26 majority French co-productions and ten minority French ones), Belgium is still far and away the country’s favourite partner, ahead of Germany (14 films, including six majority French ones, with a significant fall in minority French productions since 2012, dropping from 18 to eight), Italy (12, including three majority French ones, a total that includes seven financial co-productions – ie, with no artistic or technical input from the minority country) and Switzerland (11, five of which majority productions).
These countries are followed up by Spain (seven, with six minority French), Sweden (five minority, a truly unprecedented phenomenon), Luxembourg (five, including three majority), the Netherlands (four minority), Great Britain (four minority), Portugal (four, including one majority), Poland (two minority), Romania (two minority), Bulgaria (one majority and one minority), Greece (one majority and one minority), Denmark (two minority), Norway (one minority), Ireland (one minority), Serbia (one majority) and Bosnia (one minority).
It is also interesting to note the collaborations with Georgia (four, including three minority French), Russia (two minority), Turkey (three, including two minority French) and Iceland (one minority).
As for the rest of the world, we should highlight the links forged with Canada (seven co-productions, including five minority French) and Israel (four, including three minority French). These are in addition to co-productions with China (two minority), India (one minority) and Cambodia (one majority).
France co-produced seven films with three African countries: Tunisia (three, including one majority), South Africa (one majority and one minority) and Algeria (two majority). Lastly, four co-productions were staged with Latin American territories: Argentina (two minority French), Colombia (one minority) and Mexico (one minority).
The impressive list of minority French co-productions staged in 2014 includes films directed by Nanni Moretti, Paolo Sorrentino, Miguel Gomes, Joachim Trier, Giorgios Lanthimos, Jaco Van Dormael, Joachim Lafosse, Felix van Groeningen, Radu Muntean and Semih Kapanoglu, among others.
(Translated from French)
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