02/12/2016 - Cineuropa spoke to Joséphine Vinet, of the CNC's ACM Distribution, which aims to promote the international dissemination of films co-produced with a non-European country

Since 2012, the World Cinema Support scheme (in French, “Aide aux cinémas du monde”, or ACM), jointly managed by the CNC and the Institut Français, has been backing feature films that are international co-productions with France. ACM Distribution is a new component of this intended to support and foster the international distribution and circulation of ACM films co-produced with a non-European company. The programme received support from the European Commission’s Creative Europe - MEDIA programme. Cineuropa met up with the mission head at ACM Distribution, Joséphine Vinet, to find out more about the initiative.

Cineuropa: Since 2015, the CNC has been offering a new type of support for distribution – ACM Distribution – in partnership with the Creative Europe programme. What is the goal of this initiative?
Joséphine Vinet: The goal of ACM Distribution is to support the international distribution of non-European co-productions that have benefited from World Cinema Support at the production stage. Although these productions can have a strong reception at international festivals, they are usually not widely circulated in movie theatres or on VoD, especially in countries where audiences are less adherent to experimental cinema. The challenge here is to allow these high-quality works to be distributed to a greater number of countries, thus attracting new audiences.

Who can submit an offer?
ACMD aims to reward projects with a coordinated and innovative release strategy across multiple territories. This strategy should cover at least three territories (at least one MEDIA and one non-MEDIA) and include a VoD outlet in at least one territory. Any entity (a production outfit, distribution company or international sales agent) holding the rights of the movie(s) in consideration may apply to coordinate projects involving other partners, as long as these are established in at least one country participating in the MEDIA sub-programme. The "project-coordinating" entity can choose up to four films involving European and non-European partners, included in the ACM portfolio*, in accordance with the criteria of Creative Europe.

What are the criteria for eligibility and selection?
Eligible projects are movies (fiction, documentary or animation) that benefited from World Cinema Support beforehand. These must include at least one "non-European" co-producer – that is, a country outside MEDIA and Eurimages. In addition, the co-production share of the "European" co-producer – meaning one established in a MEDIA member country – must be between 25% and 70% for fiction and animated feature films, and between 20% and 70% for documentary feature films.

(* The catalogue of films eligible for ACM Distribution is available online: http://www.cnc.fr/web/en/acm-distribution)

If the project includes several movies, do they have to be distributed in the same territories?
No, an entity can distribute two movies in different territories, and with different partners.

What is the amount of the grant?
The overall budget is €400,000 per year, split among the selected projects.

What is the deadline for the next submissions, and when will the CNC respond to the selected projects? Are there several sessions over the year?
Two selection committees are held each year, one in the spring, the other in the autumn. On these occasions, seven experts meet and issue a decision on each candidate project, which is then validated by the president of the CNC. One committee already took place in February 2016, where five films were selected: Ixcanul Volcano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jayro Bustamante
film profile] by Jayro Bustamante (Guatemala), As I Open My Eyes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leyla Bouzid
film profile] by Leyla Bouzid (Tunisia), Cemetery of Splendour [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), An (Sweet Red Bean Paste) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Naomi Kawase (Japan) and The Black Hen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Min Bahadur Bham (Nepal). Thanks to the CNC’s help, these movies have been released in theatres and/or on VoD in over 25 countries! Five new projects were submitted at the end of September, and a second selection committee was held on 29 November.

A third call for projects will open at the beginning of December. Candidates will have two months to send in their projects. (All the information related to applications can be found on our website: http://www.cnc.fr/web/fr/acm-distribution)

(Translated from French)