18/12/2003

After being elected as head of the Union of French film Producers and Exporters (CSPEFF) on September 10, Jean-François Lepetit has been active in calling for professionals to unite in the re-negotiations on the agreement that links French cinema to the TV channel, Canal+, the main funder for French cinema (€122.99m invested in 109 films in 2002). The producer from Flach Films is seen as one of the key figures in the French film industry.

At the end of October, the new president of the CSPEFF caused disarray in the industry with his idea for a confederation that would unite all the producers' bodies, a group that would encompass organisations like the ARP (Authors-Directors-Producers), the UPF (Union of Film Producers), the SPI (Syndicate of Independent Producers), API (the Association of Independent Producers) and obviously the CSPEFF. The aim of this Union would be to present a common position to the negotiations with Canal+ and Brussels (the changes to the Television without Frontiers directive and the re-examination of the national support mechanisms for cinema), would force the groups to go beyond the split between the two main factions in France today: the BLIC (API, the National Federation of French Cinema, the National Federation of Film Distributors, the Federation of technical, cinema, audiovisual and multimedia Industries, the Union of Video Publishers and the major producers) and the BLOC (CSPEFF, UPF, SPI, the Society of Film Directors, the Society of Independent Distributors, the groups in Film Research and independent authors and artists). It's an uphill task, given the diverging interests of the groups, and the influence various personalities representing the groups bring to bear.

As part of the main debate, Jean-François Lepetit has emphasised some issues in an interview with the French daily paper ‘Le Figaro’, “the serious crisis of the division of funding between the various protagonists in the marketplace, where the main victims are the independent producers”. He also noted the poor participation from the DVD sector in French Film production and the strategy adopted for the spread of cinematographic works, a question that, in his opinion, is prejudicial in respect to all the other formats. The president of the CSPEFF is happy about the creation of the tax credit system, and he is hopeful it will be more compatible with minority share European co-productions.

Finally, on the negotiations with Canal+, Jean-François Lepetit believes that the thrust of the talks should “basically lead to a softening of the obligations to broadcast” and create “a strategy of diversified buying, with more consistent prices”. On the current debate about the chronology of the media, he believes that “we have to think about it carefully, because the system could be more in the interest of films and not in the interest of every type of broadcaster, if they are considered separately”.

(Translated from French)