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INDUSTRY France

The "Club des 13" sounds the alarm

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The French film industry has had a rude awakening with the publication of an analysis of the dysfunctions of the entire sector by a group of 13 professionals that includes directors (Claude Miller, Jacques Audiard, Pascale Ferran), a screenwriter, producers (Why Not, Archipel 35, Rectangle Productions, Agat Films), distributors (Pyramide), exhibitors and an international sales agent (Films Distribution).

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Having spent one year closely examining French production from all angles, the "Club des 13" (which has already become 73 with the addition of Claude Chabrol, Bruno Podalydès, Dominik Moll and Lucas Belvaux, among others) have drawn up a harsh report.

They denounce a decline in the quality of films; the bipolarisation between big budget films that are easy to finance and small budget films that are increasingly under threat; the risk of non-renewal of artistic talent; the unnatural submission of cinema to the needs of the televisual market; and the shifting of power from producers to broadcasters (TV formatting the films available via their subsidiaries and large exhibitor groups showing an overabundance of well-publicised titles in their multiplexes).

They also speak of tense relations between distributors and exhibitors and the impact on international sales where auteur films nonetheless constitute the best export vector after EuropaCorp’s English-language features; and the negative effects of support from the National Centre for Cinematography (CNC).

The report looks at writing (insufficient funding for screenplays, the application of TV aesthetic standards and the consensual standardisation of content) and the growing influence of the thirty most highly sought-after actors and their agents, of the financiers and broadcasters who are gaining more control over the creative process of filmmaking.

Other issues are the monopoly of distribution by big groups, exhibition that is yielding to a two-speed economy and international sales that are damaged by "package deals".

All in all, the report entitled Le milieu n’est plus un pont, mais une faille (“The middle is no longer a bridge but a fault line”) offers a damning analysis of the sector as a whole.

The problems with funding are spelt out: stagnation over the past 15 years of the amounts given in advances on receipts (1/7 of a feature’s budget in 1993 compared to 1/12 of the budget today); the CNC’s automatic support fund being tapped by co-producers (including TV networks) to the detriment of delegated independent producers; and the pitiful recovery of receipts (due in particular to the concentration of mandates).

The "Club des 13" puts forward 12 specific suggestions for an overhaul. They include doubling the amount granted in advances on receipts; an automatic support fund for production intended for the delegated producer alone with 7.5% reserved for writing; a bonus of 25% of automatic support for distribution aimed at distributors who buy a French film produced without TV co-production; the termination of any benefit that broadcaster subsidiaries stand to gain from this fund; the creation of an automatic support fund for exports and a bonus for filmmakers dependent upon the number of international territories sold.

The report will be handed to the Culture Minister on April 3 and published by Editions Stock.

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(Translated from French)

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