31/03/2014 - Last year, 24 European territories and 14 from the rest of the world were involved in feature films that qualified as French

With 43% of the 270 feature films produced in 2013 being international co-productions, the French film industry is staying extremely open to the rest of the world, according to the report unveiled by the CNC. 116 co-productions with 38 countries saw the light of day last year (compared to a record 129 in 2012), with 55 of them majority French (four fewer than the previous year) and 61 minority French (nine fewer), making a total investment of €552.89 million (a sharp drop of 22.9%).

With 38 films (28 majority French co-productions and ten minority French), Belgium has once again established itself as the top partner for French productions, ahead of Germany (22 films, nine of which majority). On the other hand, the relationship with Italy has taken a dramatic step backwards, with only nine co-productions in 2013 as against 18 in 2012, a fall attributable to the minority French films reducing from 14 to five. 

These countries are followed by Switzerland (seven co-productions, including four majority French), Luxembourg (with a highly visible reduction – six co-productions as against 15 in 2012) and Spain (six, including four minority). Indeed, Europe is still France’s favoured partner – France has minority co-produced, among others, five British features, four Romanian ones and three Irish ones. Also notable are the French co-productions with Denmark (three minority French), Portugal (three, including two minority), Norway (two minority), the Czech Republic (two minority), Austria (two majority), Greece (one majority and one minority), the Netherlands (one majority and one minority), Finland (one minority), Sweden (one minority), Poland (one majority), Latvia (one minority), Lithuania (one minority), Macedonia (one minority), Bulgaria (one minority) and Croatia (one minority).

Also featuring on the list of partner countries in 2013 are Israel (seven, including four majority, two minority and one evenly split), Canada (six, including five minority), Russia (five, including four minority), China (three minority), Georgia (three), Algeria (three), Turkey (two), Chile (two), India (one), Morocco (one), Ivory Coast (one), Lebanon (one), Colombia (one) and Mexico (one).

The impressive list of minority French co-productions in 2013 includes films directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Fatih Akin, Lars von Trier, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Liv Ullmann, Bent Hamer, Ruben Ostlund, Paolo Virzi, Daniel Monzon, Panos Koutras, Florin Serban, Xavier Dolan, Nadav Lapid and Miguel Gomes, among others.

(Translated from French)