27/02/2003

France's National Film Centre -CNC- has published the results of the first-ever film production mini-treaty signed between France and Germany in Cannes in May 2001.
Twelve feature films received financial support, 6 of which were with French majority participation, 3 with German majority participation and 3 evenly-shared productions. A painstaking analysis of the results by the Franco-German Academy found that the joint venture was a success. The report was presented on 10 February in Berlin by German minister for culture Christina Weiss and her French counterpart Jean-Jacques Aillagon.
The treaty earmarked an annual total of Euros3m annually and set an upper limit of 20 per cent of the total costs of any given film. The titles that received grants were Tosca by Benoît Jacquot, Deux by Werner Schroeter, 24 heures de la vie d’une femme by Laurent Bouthnik, Vivre me tue by Jean-Pierre Sinapi, La petite prairie aux bouleaux by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Ne fais pas ça di Luc Bondy and Don’t come knockin’ by Wim Wenders.
The scheme also funded four Franco-German co-productions in 2002: Le temps des loups by Michael Haneke (Germany, Austria, France) received an advance on box office takings of Euros382,000, Paradise Found by Mario Andreacchio (an Australian majority participation with France, the United Kingdom and Germany) and L’étrange affaire de Mister K. by Fabrizio Lori (an Italian majority participation with France and Germany).

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(Translated from French)