68 projects and 1 billion euros to boost audiovisual production in France

First race result for the “Great image factory” . As part of this effort to strengthen the infrastructure of the audiovisual and cinema industry, the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, announced Friday in Cannes the list of 68 projects selected.

These projects will distribute 350 million euros of public investment from the “France 2030” plan (54 billion euros over five years, all sectors combined). Leveraging private funding, investment for studios and training in image professions should be around 1 billion euros overall.

Become the leader in film shoots in Europe

“It’s a plan to increase skills, increase production capacity and increase dream power”, summed up Friday in front of the press Rima Abdul Malak, taking up a famous expression of André Malraux. Clearly, France wants to remain attractive and even become the leader in film shoots in continental Europe.

Even if Netflix and others have stopped the wild growth in spending, these giants are still very keen on content produced outside the United States also because of new obligations, as is the case in France. But the tricolor studios appear undersized compared to demand while several filming sites in Europe – Pinewood in the United Kingdom, Babelsberg in Germany or even Cinecittà in Italy example) – already benefit from very significant investments.

153,000 square meters of studios

In France, the sought-after “industrial leap” aims to double the surface area of ​​film sets to 153,000 m2, multiply by four the surface area of ​​permanent outdoor sets (“backlots”) and double the number of people trained in the cinema industry. and audiovisual to reach 10,000 in 2030.

In detail, the files chosen relate to 11 film studios, 34 training organizations and around twenty digital production studios (animation, video games, special effects and post-production). As expected, the projects focus on Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and the Mediterranean arc but are not limited to them.

Ex-airbase

La Fémis in Paris, the recently launched Séries Mania Institute in Lille and the INA campus in Bry-sur-Marne are among the training projects chosen. On the shooting studio side, Ile-de-France has many projects (Bry-sur-Marne, Montjoie, Bailly-Romainvilliers, etc.) but there is also the conversion of a former air base near Reims, projects in Marseille/Martigues and the studios of France Televisions in Vendargues (Montpellier)…

Selectivity has been pushed. Of the 175 files sorted beforehand by the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) and the Fund deposits and Consignment (CDC), less than half were ultimately selected by the two committees of independent experts chaired by filmmaker Xavier Jimenez and video game designer Muriel Tramis.

Accelerator kick

Enough to augur, according to the professionals, investments without sprinkling and concentrated on projects large enough to have a real boost and shine. But a lot will also depend on the maturity of each project and its execution.

In fact, there will be a “phasing” of the payments to verify that the conditions (possession of the land, ecological virtues, implementation of the platforms, establishment of scholarships, etc.) are met, but for certain existing projects it will be possible “act quickly to produce effects this year,” explains Vincent Florant, digital director of the CNC. The precise budget envelopes for each project will be fixed before the summer for digital studios and training organizations, and at the start of the school year for film studios.