19/01/2006

Remedy the imbalance that exists between France and Spain in the co-production domain, that was the conclusion of discussions at noon yesterday in Paris within the framework of the first Cinema Encounters organised by Unifrance. In fact, the relatively stable level of co-productions between the two countries (11 features in 2001, 3 in 2002, 8 in 2003, 5 in 2004 and 9 in 2005) hides an important number of films, majority French and, of course, minority Spanish. Note too however that the threshold for financial co-productions was brought back to 10 % which should favour development, with the difference that exists between the average budget for a French production (5,3 million euros in 2004) and its Spanish equivalent (2,5 million) makes Spanish investments more difficult since it is proportionally higher. Presented by François Hurard (director of cinema for CNC) and Beatriz de Armas (delegate director of cinema and audiovisual development at the ICAA), the debate allowed six producers to offer certain roads for reflection.

According to Yves Marmion (UGC YM), familiar with French-Spanish co-productions (Les Dalton, Mar Adentro...), the shortfall between the average spending of each country penalizes cooperation and it would we beneficial to follow the example of the agreements for co-productions between France and Italy which allows financial participation at only 5 % within strict guidelines. For his part, Juan Gordon (Morena Films) underlines the narrowness of aid accessible in France for Spanish projects (Advance on Receipts for French language films only and a tiny aid budget from the CNC in favour of films in a foreign language). Also, he reiterated the difference in distribution support, with the ICAA leaning towards releases of French films in Spain while in France, aid is dependent on receipts from the theatres. Eric Nevé (La Chauve Souris) pointed out the difficulty of convincing French TV channels to pre-buy majority Spanish co-productions other than big names like Almodovar. A topic brought up by Antonio Saura (Zebra Producciones) looked at the extreme difficulty of selling co-productions to Spanish channels, in particular where there was no Spanish actor. As for Thomas Langmann (La Petite Reine), aware of the unusual case of Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques (shooting partly in Valencia in May), he pointed out some of the main advantages of Spain: its natural settings and the potential of studios at the new Cité de la Luz. Finally, Francisco Casal (Continental Producciones) advanced the idea of creating a French-Spanish co-production mini-treaty in the style of the one that exists between France and Germany. Condemning the lack of investment from Spanish TV channels, he also demanded that public TV from the two countries be more active in aiding European co-production through pre-sales, promotion and the conquest of new audiences.

(Translated from French)