11/03/2005

The official results of French film production in 2004, revealed yesterday by Catherine Colonna, general manager of the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), show how strong French cinema is. As Cineuropa revealed on the 14th of January, 203 features films were registered last year, with a total budget of 1.04 billion euros, of which 892.04 million went to 167 films where France was the main operator (FIF), which means the average budget of each of these productions was 5.34 million euros ; that is quite a record. Furthermore, 24 of these FIF features had a budget higher than 10 million euros (while there were only 18 of them the year before). On top of the 2004 list, we find Arthur by Luc Besson (65.20 million euros), Les Dalton by Philippe Haïm (€27.04M), L'empire des loups by Chris Nahon (€23.93M), and Iznogoud by Patrick Braoudé (€22.9M).

As far as coproductions are concerned, 2004 shows a clear decrease with only 73 films as opposed to 107 in 2003, which brings figures back to what they were between 1997 and 2001. It is mainly the result of new policies which enforce a series of fiscal advantages to help relocate sets and production centres. On 455.87 million euros spent altogether, France invested €226.83M. For 37 of these coproductions, France was the main producer ; for the other 36, France was a minority partner. Amongst the 25 countries which worked with the FIF in 2004, we find the United-Kingdom (13 full-length features for 23 the year before), Belgium (10 films), Italy (9), Germany (9), and Spain (5). It is worth mentionning that amongst the 9 merely financial partnerships completed in 2004, 6 of them involved Italy.

Finally, in terms of investments by TV channels , 2004 has been a good year, Canal + being so active as to invest over 136 million euros in advance for the rights on some of the year’s productions, 128 of which went to 114 FIF Films. The satellite channel Ciné Cinéma put 9.41 million euros in 46 FIF Films while TPS Cinéma invested €31.87M in 44 FIF. The terrestrial network went up to €124.42M (for only 110 million in 2003).

(Translated from French)