14/01/2010

After the 2008 record in the number of accredited films and the level of investment, in 2009 French production saw a slight drop in the total number of features and a much sharper drop in financing.

According to statistics from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC), 230 features were accredited in 2009 (-10 compared to 2008, +2 over 2007), including 182 French initiative films - FIF (196 in 2008 and 185 in 2007) and 48 minority co-productions (44 films in 2008, 43 in 2007).

The fall in investments to €1.1bn (€1.5bn in 2008 and €1.2bn in 2007) should nevertheless be put into perspective, for 2008 saw an unusual concentration of three major productions (Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Arthur and the Two Worlds War [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Oceans: almost €182m in combined budgets). In 2009, there were no productions in the estimated budget bracket of over €40m and the average budget for a French initiative film was €5.10m.

The bipolarisation trend for majority French productions (rise in the number of big and small-budget films to the detriment of medium-budget features) subsided. The proportion of films with a budget of over €15m did indeed drop from 9.2% of FIFs in 2008 to 6% last year. Meanwhile, the percentage of small-budget features with a budget of under €1m fell from 22.4% to 15.4%.

Last year was also a good year for the rise of new talents with a record number of debut and second features, which represented 62.6% of French production in 2009.

(Translated from French)