Valérie Lemercier at the top of the highest paid French film directors in 2021

She is the highest paid director in France. According to information from Cinéfinances.info, relayed by Siritz, Valérie Lemercier is at the top of the ranking of the best paid directors in France. She thus received 900,000 euros for her film Aline, based on the life of famous singer Celine Dion. A feature film which also earned her to be one of the best paid screenwriters in France with 776,000 euros affected for the screenplay of which she is co-author.

In the standings, she is ahead of Olivier Baroux, who received 800,000 euros to achieve The Tuche 4 and 270,000 euros for the script. On the third step of the podium, we find Nicolas Bedos with OSS 117: Red alert in black Africa. For the film the director received 602,000 euros and 576,000 euros for the script. He is ahead of Yvan Attal with Human things (450,000 and 537,000 euros) and Alexandre Astier with Kaamelott – First part, who received 442,000 euros for the production but is the screenwriter who received the largest amount for his film: 870,000 euros.

Luc Besson at the top

More generally, the average remuneration of directors for French films released in 2021 is 140,000 euros, far from the top of the ranking and the 900,000 euros of Valérie Lemercier. In addition, recalls Siritz, the median compensation was 100,000 euros.

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However, these sums are still far from those received by the five highest paid directors since 2015. A ranking dominated by Luc Besson and Valérian and the city of a thousand planets, released in 2017, which earned him 4.4 million euros, ahead of Dany Boon and his 4.2 million euros received for Crazy Raid (2017). Guillaume Canet occupies third place with Rock’n roll, ex aequo with Christian Duguay for A bag of marbles (4 million euros), two films also released in 2017. In fifth position of the highest paid directors: Steven Quale for Robbers, in 2018, with more than two million euros.

The remuneration of French directors fluctuates significantly over the years. If 2017 was a very good vintage, 2016 on the other hand is much less flourishing, since no filmmaker has seen his remuneration exceed one million euros. Since 2015, the average remuneration of directors has stood at 1.5 million euros, which represents 4.9% of the total budget of a film.