The announcement, during the last Cannes Film Festival, of an exceptional jackpot of 350 million euros allocated, within the framework of France Relance, to doubling film and audiovisual filming capacities in France, as well as to training, gives wings to many operators. In an attempt to catch up, France has launched a very large-scale initiative aimed at attracting more international filming, allowing more French films to be shot in France, particularly in Ile-de-France, in the North and in the Mediterranean arc. Steered by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) in conjunction with the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), the call for tenders to “the great image factory” was widely followed. A total of 175 applications were submitted to the CNC at the end of October. The list of big winners should not be given before March 2023.
This windfall could unlock the thorny issue of the Bry-sur-Marne studios (Val-de-Marne), taken over at a high price in 2017 by the developer Nexity, who wanted to create residential buildings there. Responding to the outcry from professionals and politicians for the site to remain devoted to filming, the real estate group could sell in the coming weeks to Sienna Investment (Groupe Bruxelles Lambert) and to Artset (Guillaume de Menthon’s consulting company) the twelve hectares on which the seven studios are located. “The new investors want to modernize them and double their surface area”, says Pascal Bécu, director of these studios.
After a dark period – the 2000s – during which “French producers had relocated their films to Eastern Europe”, recalls Mr. Bécu, the creation of a tax credit and above all the exponential demand for series intended for platforms have radically changed the situation. And made the studios attractive again. “We are at saturation point for filming in intramural Paris”confirms Michel Gomez, general delegate of the cinema mission of the City of Paris. “With the Olympic Games, we will suffer large-scale filming restrictions during the summer of 2024”, he warns. Hence the importance of backlots, these reconstructions of streets in studios.
France overtaken by its neighbors
Due to a lack of investment, France allowed itself to be overtaken by its neighbors and this delay took on abysmal proportions compared to the British. Between 2020 and 2021, 2 billion pounds (2.33 billion euros) went to renovate and increase supply in the UK. So much so that 360,000 square meters of trays – notably those from Pinewood, Warner Leavesden or Shepperton – are marketed there, i.e. 6.2 times the hexagonal capacity (58,000 square meters). “The United Kingdom is the most beautiful aircraft carrier in American cinema, the studios there follow an industrial logic”adds Mr. Gomez, “by signing long-term agreements with Hollywood studios or platforms – like Netflix with Shepperton Studios – to secure their filming capacities.
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