Presidential Tribune 2022 – “For a cinema of all directions, designed for any audience” (Victor Hadida, FNEF)

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Publication date: 31.03.2022 – 14:33

As the presidential election draws near, french film invites professional film and audiovisual organizations to express their expectations for the next five-year term. Victor Hadida, President of FNEF, calls on the next government for “recognition and stronger support” for publishers.

Even if the pandemic has highlighted film publishing and distribution as the link most at risk, politicians rarely measure the extent to which publishers play a major role in the cinema chain.

They are vital players in funding the creation and distribution of works, architects and creators of this added value resulting from the work of publishing that gives works this enduring and irreplaceable value.

The variety of companies and editorial lines guarantees a variety of works and high attendance of the cinema audience. Film publishers need to be better known and recognized.

Despite a shrinking market in 2021 with only 96 million cinema admissions, FNEF publishers implemented into the cinema ecosystem that same year:
– more than €145 million investment in film pre-financing
– almost 130 million euros in exit costs
– more than 40 million euros of contribution to TSA, received from 63 million applications they made and which went to the CNC support fund.

Despite difficult conditions, they maintained a high level of commitment.

Therefore, our first request for the next five years will be the recognition and stronger support of this link in the chain of cinemas, which was poorly compensated during the crisis, which is a ticking time bomb for the entire industry. The state must definitely intervene to make the publisher-distributor economic equation sustainable and allow the entire sector to maintain its creative diversity and its international influence.

This requires encouraging publishers to invest in and market films across the spectrum to provide producers with the funding they need and cinemas with content that will appeal to all audiences. It goes through:

– introduction of a tax credit for film distribution costs;

– coverage of risks assumed by distributors in guaranteed amountsas any pre-financing partner or as SOFICA, through the recovery corridor of other film revenues;

– carried out the reform of art and essay, for example, giving more importance to cinemas that show really difficult films;

– auto-distributor support fund opening allow, thanks to the success of investment policy support work, in a context where failures are more numerous.

– stronger fight against piracy by creating a fine for repeat offenders. It would be inconceivable and unacceptable that the next government should not include it in its first emergency measures,

– extension of covid aid until the real end of the crisis : expanded expansion of the support fund; reinvest bonus in guaranteed amounts; fairer treatment of foreign films of a variety that are excluded from the support fund, despite their contribution to the richness of the offer in cinemas, in particular for 15-25 year olds;

– sustainable resources directly dedicated to public broadcasting ensure diversified purchases from distributors.

Such measures, in particular, would allow our companies, hard hit by the crisis, to regain prospects in a market that is struggling to regain color and sees success polarized by a limited number of films. The analysis showed that cinema attendance decreased despite the fact that screening conditions were similar to previous years. Therefore we need first of all, win back the missing audience :
– based on rules that have reached a point of balance and have successfully combined the cultural and industrial challenges of our sector;
– by stepping up collective efforts to promote all films to all viewers;
– by stepping up our image education efforts and promoting the emergence of a new cinema that will appeal to the youngest.

FNEF will be especially sensitive to the issue of the most fragile films, while recognizing the contribution of promising films to the economy of the industry and to CNC resources: without success, there can be no fair balance or redistribution.

Florian Krieg

© photo credit: DR

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