“I have never seen a project move so quickly. The state took the leader, and everyone got into gear. » Secretary General of the Regional Association of Technicians of the Southeast (ARTS), which brings together nearly 500 film and audiovisual professionals, Delphine Camolli is surprised. She who was used to the constraints of communities, in more than twenty years of work in structures devoted to cinema in Marseille, did not expect to see the logistics base for filming, imagined and piloted by the ARTS, take shape so quickly. .
At 56 Boulevard du Capitaine-Gèze (14e), between an overflowing flea market and a candy factory, work on this site, the first concrete achievement of the cinema component of the “Marseille en grand” plan, began on Wednesday 1er FEBRUARY. A rehabilitation that will transform this former gate manufacturing workshop of more than 4,000 square meters into a place capable of simultaneously accommodating six production teams, with offices, set workshops, storage of costumes… Barring site hazards, the logistics base will open in September. Two years after the announcement made by Emmanuel Macron to integrate into his plan for Marseille a financial and structural boost to the image industry.
“Quick concretizations are needed to show that the plan is progressing, while waiting for longer-term projects”, notes, satisfied, the prefect Laurent Carrié, in charge of the overall follow-up of Marseille in large. “It’s a signal for productions looking for filming locations”abounds André Santelli, delegate seconded to Marseille by a National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) in the central role.
The demand is there. In 2022, Marseille beat, with 1,469 days of filming, according to the municipal cinema office, its record of 2021 (+ 2.4%). An increase due, in particular, to the volume of fiction for television (21 against 12 in 2021) and platforms. The activity generated spin-offs of 82.5 million euros on the territory, a significant increase compared to 2021 (+ 23%) and, despite the cessation of the France 3 series, More beautiful lifee, in September 2022.
Four large folders
The cinema component of the plan for Marseille does not have the scale of the investments promised for transport, the renovation of schools or large complexes, quantified in billions of euros. On January 9, the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, came to sign a common commitment protocol with all the local authorities. The State allocates 22.5 million euros to four major files. In addition to the ARTS logistics base, for one million euros, the establishment of a Marseille branch of the CinéFabrique national superior film school, including a preparation class opened in 2022 at La Belle-de -May, will be funded to the tune of 15 million euros. Five million will go to the creation of a branch of the Cinémathèque française. Two projects that could be brought together, by 2027, within a Regional and Mediterranean Image City, led by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Council. Finally, an envelope of 1.5 million will help renovate the media center of Belle-de-Mai, orphan since September 2022 of More beautiful life. Its owner, the City of Marseille, dreams of making it “a flagship for the development of cultural and creative industries”.
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