22/03/2007

The Ile de France region is expected to confirm today its allocation of €2.6m in funding to nine film projects at its first support fund session of 2007. Six features will receive €2.4m.

Projects to receive funding include Jérôme Deschamps and Pascal Herold’s animated feature La véritable histoire du chat botté (Puss-in-Boots), based on the book by Charles Perrault.

The film is a feature debut from the slate of the Herold Family together with MK2 and is being co-produced with Belgium and Switzerland. The Ile de France will provide backing of €394,000.

Three other features have been selected. First in line is Sur ta joue ennemie (formerly Un jour peut-être, see news) by Jean Xavier de Lestrade, winner of the 2002 Best Documentary Oscar.

Produced by Ciné - @ (Philippe Carcassonne) and Maha Productions, the €2.9m film will receive €339,000 from the Ile de France region, as well as CNC advances on receipts. Shooting is scheduled to begin in the autumn. Robinson Stévenin and Fanny Valette will star.

Emmanuel Saget’s Les grands s’allongent par terre (lit. “Adults Lie Down On the Ground”), a Les Films Pelléas production, will receive €376,000 of its €1.6m total budget, while Delante Films and Galatée Films comedy Modern Love by Stéphane Kazandjian has been granted €523,000 of its €6m budget.

Fantasy thriller L’occupation by directing duo Pierre Trividic (Pascale Ferrand’s scriptwriter) and Patrick Mario Bernard (co-director of the highly acclaimed 2002 feature Dancing) is to receive €486,000.

Produced by Ex Nihilo, the project is set to carry a €3.2m budget and will star Dominique Blanc and Danish actor Peter Bonke.

Lastly, the French/Tunisian co-production (91% by France’s BVNG Productions), Un si beau voyage (lit. “Such a Beautiful Journey”) by Khaled Ghorbal will be backed €304,000 of its €1.9m budget.

Three documentary features are among the Ile de France selected projects. Samir Abdallah’s Après la guerre, c’est toujours la guerre (lit. “After the War, There is Always War”), from the slate of Vidéo de poche will be funded €59,000, while €72,000 each will go to 1001 Productions Ce pays qui est le nôtre, mais aussi le vôtre... (lit. “This Country is Ours, But Also Yours”) by Jean-Pierre Lledo and Les Films du Poisson production Où sont les documents (lit. “Where Are the Documents?”) by Flavia Castro.

One of the eight audiovisual projects to receive funding is Scarlett Productions’ Les prédateurs (lit. “Predators”) by Belgian director Lucas Belvaux, a film about the Elf case, which carries a generous €7.8m budget with €875,000 in support.

(Translated from French)