23/11/2005

Musical chairs cinema-wise at the group Canal +, principal financier of the French 7th art. Never-changing Nathalie Bloch-Lainé quits her post as director of acquisitions for French and European films to join StudioCanal as director delegate in charge of production. This appointment led to the arrival as director of acquisitions of Manuel Alduy who headed Ciné Cinéma, a responsibility now handed to Nathalie Coste-Cerdan. Responsible for the whole cinema section of the group C+ is Evi Fullenbach while Frédéric Sichler has been in charge since February 2003 of the subsidiary StudioCanal (finance, acquisition, international sales and film distribution).

In 2004, Canal + invested 136,65 million euros in 124 French features (27 first films and 27 second films). Representing 17 % of French investments in film production for 2004, finance from the encrypted channel was applied to 68% of French-led productions . An involvement based on legal obligations since Canal + must dedicate at least 12% of its annual turn-over to the acquisition of broadcast rights of European works (and at least 9% for films expressing French identity) with a minimum guarantee of 3,12 euros per subscription for European features (2,36 euros for French films). Also, the encrypted channel must dedicate at least 80 % of the total of its obligations to presales for films expressing French identity (of which at least 17 % in films below or equalling 4 million euros) and at least 75 % of the spending must be with independent production.

(Translated from French)