18/09/2003

The French National Film Commission (CNF), has a new president. Frédéric Brillion (Epithète Films) was elected into the position last Monday, and he will be replacing Alain Terzian (Alter Films.

The CNF is the organisation that promotes filming in the French regions, and its 20-member board of management is made up of important figures from the cinematographic and audio-visual world of production, representatives of the National Film Centre, the ministers of Tourism and Finance, and representatives from the French regions. These include the president of Unifrance and the manager of Films du Losange, Margaret Menegoz, the president of the Laboratori Eclair, and Bertrand Dormoy, as well as Pierre-William Glenn from the Superior Commission for Sound & Pictures (the CST ) and Thierry de Segonzac from Ficam (the French federation of film, audiovisual and multimedia industries). Also sitting on the management committee are the TV producers Christian Charret (GTV) and Nicolas Traube (Pampa).
The National Film Commission has an annual budget of €600,000, but it still doesn’t have the means at its disposal to stem the increasing haemorrhaging of French films moving abroad for their sets. But it can provide an efficient service for producers who want to make their films in France, thanks to a wide network of local and regional commissions. There is also hope that the new system of tax sweeteners being drawn up by the Ministry of Culture, will also help the French industry by encouraging shooting and post production to be done in France.