21/03/2014 - According to the Ficam, fiction feature production has been scaled back, with just 11 films having been shot in two months

A dramatic slowdown in the shooting of French-led fiction features has been recorded for the first two months of 2014 in the poll conducted by the Ficam (the French Federation of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries). With only five films shot in January and six in February, making 11 in total (compared with an average of 19 for the same period over the three previous years), there has been an undeniable fall in activity. The explanation for this is a combination of financial strain and the consequences of the long and turbulent negotiations on the sector’s collective agreement (which finally came to a successful conclusion last October) that brought many in-preparation projects to a standstill.

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In terms of investments, the decrease is even more noticeable if we take into account the combined budgets of €41 million in January-February 2014, a fall of 54% compared with the average of the three previous years. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the indicators fell more sharply in January (-48% for the number of films shot and -76% for investments) than in February (-35% and -25%, respectively). Therefore, it is only the figures for the coming months that will allow us to determine exactly how severe this phenomenon is, and to work out if it is just a bump in the road against a backdrop of economic austerity or a more serious trend indicating a sharp scaledown in production.

(Translated from French)