14/01/2011

All lights are green for French film production with a record of 261 accredited films in 2010 (+13.5% compared to 2009, i.e. 31 more films) for a total investment close to €1.44bn (+31%), according to statistics from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC).

There is a significant dynamism of international co-productions, with 118 films (+28%, i.e. 25 more features than in 2009), including 60 majority French (+33%) and 58 minority French (+21%). Meanwhile, the number of 100% French features increased from 137 to 143 (+4.4%). A total of 203 French initiative films were thus produced, the highest level since 1981.

On the financing side, the turbulence of 2009 is a thing of the past, even though investment in 2010 (€1.439bn, including €1.089bn from French sources and €349m in foreign investment) fell short of 2008’s record (€1.49bn).

Financing of French initiative productions rose more (+19.9%) than the number of films produced (+11.5%) and the average budget was €5.48m. Moreover, the category of French initiative features with a budget of between €4-7m saw the biggest increase (46 films in 2010), attracting over 23% of investment (compared to 16.2% in 2009 and 11.4% in 2008).

Films with an estimated budget of over €7m captured 60% of investment with the 12 biggest budgets of 2010 (over €15m) accounting for 25.6% of total investment. Overall, there was a more balanced spread between the different estimated budget brackets, with the bipolarisation phenomenon (rise in the number of big and small-budget films to the detriment of medium-budget features) lessening for the second year in a row.

It now remains to be seen how the glowing health of French film production will play out in the Darwinian environment of theatrical distribution where gridlocks of releases are already widespread.

(Translated from French)