09/05/2003

The leading French region in terms of cinema and audiovisual financing, Ile-de-France, to the tune of 10 million Euro in 2003, has announced the financing commission’s decisions made in April regarding the first beneficiaries of the year.
7 feature films will benefit from the support of over 2.2 million Euro.
Among the beneficiaries: 400 thousand Euros to Alain Resnais’s Pas sur la bouche (an Arena Films production), 350 thousand Euros to Arthur Joffé’s Ne quittez pas (Les Films du Losange), 401 thousand Euro to Guillaume Nicloux’s Cette femme-là (Little Bear), 300 thousand Euro to Robin Campillo’s Les revenants (Haut et Court) and 320 thousand Euro to François Ozon’s 5 x 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Fidélité Productions).
The Ile-de-France region has also decided to distribute a further 880 thousand Euros to finance four films made for television in this first session of 2003.

Encouraged by the recent measures announced by minister Aillagon, regional involvement in film production is especially advantageous for the independents whose financial resources suffer from broadcasters’ restrictive pre-acquisition policy.

Financial changes which also benefit the technological industries of which 90 per cent is concentrated in the region.
The undeniably strategic geographical position of the region is one of the reasons behind the rapid growth of this fund run by Marie-Pierre de la Gontrie, the first vice-president responsible for culture in the region. Over the past three years the total amount of funds distributed has grown from 1.5 million Euro to 10 million Euro in 2003, from 5 films financed in 2001 to 16 in 2002 and an estimated thirty in 2003.

(Translated from French)