a record year of fundraising for cinema and audiovisual funding, Actualité / Actu Epargne


The Sofica collection mobilized € 71 million for French film and audiovisual production in 2021.

This amount, slightly below the forecasts of a report published in December (which counted on 73M €), remains however the most important to have been allocated by the public authorities to the French creation since the creation of these vehicles of investment. By way of comparison, in 2020, the device had funded € 57 million in French creation.

“This is very good news, because it is the largest envelope collected since the creation of SOFICA, in the context of an important innovation which is the opening of funding to the distribution of independent works”, explains Olivier Henrard, Deputy Director General of the National Center for Cinema and Animated Image (CNC), in a press release published on Monday, January 3.

12 vehicles approved in 2021

12 Sofica have been approved by the public authorities for 2021 fundraising. The envelopes collected by these vehicles range between € 3.4 million (Entourage Sofica, Cineaxe 4) and € 14 million (Cinemage 17).

The support of the Sofica was found in a good part of the critical and commercial successes of the year: with one exception, they participated in the financing of all the French films in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2021 (8 films, including Golden Palm Titanium by Julia Ducournau), to the one awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (The event by Audrey Diwan), 58% of French feature films selected by the Académie des Césars in 2021, two of the three feature films shortlisted for the 2022 Oscars, or even half of the films that have passed the 500,000 mark inputs.

Created in 1985, the Sofica finance the collection of private funds devoted exclusively to film and audiovisual production and distribution. Between 2016 and 2020, they invested on average 55.7M € per year on a total of more than 500 films or film projects.

Extension of the system to independent distribution

Since January 1, 2022, in accordance with the extension of the system by the finance law for 2021, Sofica can participate in the financing of independent distribution companies within the limit of 15% of investments.

“These new investments in French independent distribution, without reducing those intended for independent production, will be particularly welcome at a time when distribution is weakened by the effects of the health crisis. », Rejoices the CNC.

In return for their investments, the Sofica benefit from revenue rights on the various exploitation media of works and share in the exploitation risk alongside independent producers and distributors.

Taxation

Individuals who have subscribed to Sofica shares can benefit from an income tax reduction of up to 48%, up to a limit of € 18,000 and 25% of overall net income.

The tax advantage is attractive, but their profitability is low. In 2019, a report by producer Dominique Boutonnat on private cinema and audiovisual funding estimated that the average annual yield of Sofica, including tax benefit, was less than 2% over the period 2005-2019.



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