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CANNES 2017 Industry

The GFC and CNC sign a new convention for French-Greek co-productions - submissions now open

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- CANNES 2017: The Greek Film Centre and the Centre National du Cinéma have renewed a three-year convention that aims to support Greek-French film co-productions, during the 70th Cannes Film Festival

The GFC and CNC sign a new convention for French-Greek co-productions - submissions now open
(seated, l-r) Greek Film Centre general director Electra Venaki and CNC president Frédérique Bredin at the signing (© CNC)

UPDATE (9 June 2017): Submissions for funding applications to the Greek Film Centre and the CNC’s Aide à la Coproduction d’Œuvres Cinématographiques Franco-Grecques are now open. The deadline for submitting dossiers is 31 July, and the highest amount of funding available for each project stands at €500,000. Feature-length projects will not be discriminated against on the basis of their genres, and they must have at least one Greek-based production company and one French-based production outfit on board. For more information on the content of the submission dossier and the support scheme regulations, please visit www.gfc.gr or www.cnc.fr.

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Last week, during the 70th Cannes International Film Festival, the Greek Film Centre and the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) renewed their convention that aims to support Greek-French film co-productions (Aide à la Coproduction d’Œuvres Cinématographiques Franco-Grecques in French). The general director, Electra Venaki, represented the GFC, while the CNC was represented by its president, Frédérique Bredin

The initial convention, which was signed in 2014, benefited 21 feature films, which are currently at various stages of production; funded titles that have now been completed include Elina Psykou’s Son of Sofia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elina Psykou
film profile
]
 and Djam [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Tony Gatlif. The new agreement also has a three-year duration; hence it will be valid for 2017, 2018 and 2019, and includes some important conditions that will favour Greek co-producers and particularly low-budget films. According to the terms, those films that have a budget of less than €1.25 million, and which are debut or sophomore works by an emerging director, would benefit from an amount of funding from public bodies that could exceed 50% of their budget, reaching up to 80%.

Since the French side gives double the amount for every film, this means that the public funding exceeds 50% of the amount of the French participation in the project, which could be extremely beneficial for Greek producers. It should be noted that for 2017, the total budget of the collaboration amounts to €600,000, €400,000 of which come from the French side and €200,000 from the Greek side. For 2018 and 2019, the annual budget will be reconsidered after an agreement between the two parties.

Apart from the financial aspect, it is clearly stated in the text of the internal regulation that “projects of Greek initiative will be given particular attention”, which makes the agreement all the more important for Greek professionals. Projects can already be submitted, and both the GFC and the CNC will imminently announce all of the relevant information and the selection and evaluation criteria for the projects.

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