The main streaming platform in the world, Netflix, will bring its share to French cinema this year. This is the direct consequence of the three-year agreement announced on Tuesday February 22 between the platform and the professional organizations of the 7and art. In line with film financing obligations by On-Demand Audiovisual Media Services (SMAD) in Europe, Netflix is committed to investing 4% of its annual turnover in France in cinematographic creation French-speaking people, while guaranteeing a minimum of 30 million per year.
For 2022, all of the American group’s investments in French and European creation will amount, according to the latter, to “about 40 million euros”. A diversity clause provides that at least 17% of pre-financing will be reserved for works with a budget of less than or equal to 4 million euros. In addition, Netflix agrees to pre-finance a minimum of 10 films per year. In return, the films will be visible earlier on Netflix. The platform will bring forward its scheduled broadcast window in the new media chronology, to fifteen months after the feature film’s theatrical release (and no longer thirty-six months), and for an exclusive period of seven months. But, in the document, Netflix judges “it is desirable to bring this deadline back as soon as possible [de quinze] at twelve months.
A “historic” agreement
If the platform garners subscribers thanks to the series, it has forged a cinephile image by financing directors as well known as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Jane Campion or Adam McKay. It also produces French films, such as Big Bug, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet Tirelessly, by Regis Blondeau, far from the ring road, by Louis Leterrier, or Dangerous relationships, by Rachel Suissa, which it will broadcast this year. In addition to the 40 million euros earmarked for films that will now be released in theaters, Netflix will still invest 160 million in France per year in the production of series, documentaries and feature films directly broadcast in streaming.
“That there is a new counter for the production of French films is excellent news. Just like the fact that films co-produced by Netflix arrive in France in theaters »rejoiced Richard Patry president of the National Federation of French Cinemas in the magazine French film, while the Society of Film Directors and the Syndicate of Independent Producers saw it as an agreement “historical”. Pascal Rogard, director general of the Society of Dramatic Author-Composers, remains more circumspect: “It would be to be welcomed, he said, if the guaranteed minimum was 34 million euros and not 30 for French works, as provided for in the SMAD decree. » Above all, he regrets the lack of consistency in the new media chronology since OCS, by bringing 20 million euros to the cinema, will broadcast the films six months after their theatrical release while Netflix, bringing twice as much, will wait fifteen months.
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