101 feature films during the first semester

by Fabien Lemercier

20/07/2012 - Up to 101 feature films of French initiative were shot during the first half of 2012 (77 fiction films, which is 12% more than last year, 20 documentaries, and 4 animation films) compared to 81 for the same period last year, according to the Federation of Film, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries (FICAM)’s Professions and Market Observatory.

Investment in fiction films was up by 11% with €476m in accumulated budgets, with an average budget of €6.1m. There was also a very clear rise in the number of feature films with a budget above €10m (16 during the first six months of 2012, compared to 10 during the same period last year) and productions with a budget of between €2m and €4m (19, compared to 9 last year during the same period). However, the number of “medium-budget” films (between €4m and €7m) dropped by 26% (from 19 to 14), which has raised fears over a return of a certain polarisation in film production, despite the phenomenon having subsided over the last few years.

The other worrying fact highlighted by FICAM is the highest rate of filming relocation in the last five years (a 64% increase in relocation, compared to a 7% drop for weeks of shooting in France). Filming took place outside France for up to 35% of French-initiated films during the first half of 2012, and for up to 69% of French-initiated films with a budget over €10m (compared to 45% for the same period in 2011). The tendency is stimulated by competitive tax incentives in Europe, especially in Belgium where numerous French productions filmed during the first half of this year, including Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo.

(Translated from French)