One of the panels on this year's CNC conference programme at the Cannes Film Festival was dedicated to its Aide aux cinémas du monde (ACM, also known as World Cinema Support) funding tool. ACM is one of the “flagship projects” of the CNC, said Jérémie Kessler, director of European and International Affairs at the organisation. With a group of four, he discussed the practical issues, the challenges and, above all, the most enriching sides of co-producing on an international level. The guests on the panel included two French producers, Marianne Dumoulin from JBA Production and Marie Balducchi from Agat Film. Both women have lengthy experience with international co-productions and have close ties to ACM, since they are members of the evaluation juries for the fund. A third producer, Singapore’s Weijie Lai, from E & W Films, who is presenting two films in the official selection of the festival (Viet and Nam [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] in Un Certain Regard and Mongrel [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] in the Directors’ Fortnight), was also present. Finally, Brazilian director Marcelo Catelano, who is premiering his second feature, Baby, in this year's Critics’ Week, was also part of the panel.

Before the guests on stage shared their experiences about co-producing with different countries, a short introduction about how ACM functions was given to the audience by Michel Plazanet, deputy director of the CNC. This was intended not only to remind those present of its most important elements, but also to share the latest adaptations to its procedures. The grant, which was launched in 2012, is managed jointly by the CNC and the Institut français. Its three main goals are to “encourage the diversity of world cinema”, to “foster co-production with France” and to “promote the emergence of new directors”. Other European film funds function using similar approaches – namely, the Hubert Bals Fund, the World Cinema Fund and Visions Sud Est. France’s ACM is the one with the biggest funding budget of all, remarked Plazanet. What’s more, this budget has been topped up for 2024 to €6 million. The amount an individual project can benefit from has increased as well, to €500,000 when it comes to pre-filming support, and up to €70,000 for post-filming support. Over its 12 years of existence, more than 4,500 projects have been submitted, and a total of 634 have been supported. This has engendered co-productions with a total of 111 countries.

This particularly broad portfolio is certainly one of the characteristics that the ACM aims to maintain. When it comes to the categories of the projects supported, though, the goal is to increase the production of formats other than classical fictional features in the future. Indeed, of the 634 supported projects, only 78 were documentaries and nine were animated films. It's the animation field in particular that the ACM team wishes to develop further. For the time being, only feature-length films are eligible, but those of all genres. Another focus for the coming years is to keep up the positive trend concerning the percentage of female filmmakers supported. In 2023, this stood at 41%, the highest level since ACM was founded.

Alongside the increase in the total budget, another technical reform has taken effect. Financial support for a co-production is linked to the obligation to spend a minimum amount of the subsidy in France. This can apply to different stages of the project, such as post-production, for example. It can also be related to costs that concern French technicians or talents, as well as facilities included in the making of the project. The percentage of the subsidies to be spent in France is set at a minimum of 60%. As for the projects being submitted, the regulations state that the application can be considered for production costs or for post-production. The same project is not eligible to receive financial support for both stages, however. Furthermore, post-production funding will only be granted to projects that have already filed an application for the first stage of the project but were not successful at that point. In other words, projects cannot apply only for post-production support.

As for eligibility requirements, there is no change to ACM’s existing criteria. Projects co-produced with France and any other country are eligible. French directors can apply this criterion to their projects, too, when the film is shot in a language other than French. But otherwise, in accordance with the grant's main proposal to support co-productions, the submitted projects must involve at least one French producer and a director who is a foreign national. In all cases, it's the French producer who will receive the allocated financial support. The shooting language has to be either the language of the director's home country or that of the country in which the story is set. This is considered an important measure to avoid projects being made only for commercial reasons and to ensure the cultural diversity of cinema.

Finally, Plazanet concluded by pointing out the selection structure for the projects. Three juries have been created. One is focused solely on projects by the new generation of directors who apply with their first or second film, while a second jury evaluates projects by more experienced helmers, and the third is in charge of weighing up all of the projects that apply for post-production financing support. The fact that there is a jury specifically focused on up-and-coming directors, said Plazanet, is very dear to ACM, since it enables it to grant half of the support it has available to this category.