‘French Model’ Boosts Production

While welcoming nearly 80 international productions in 2022, the local film and television industry in France continued its own substantial output, helping fuel what Vincent Florant, director of digital at France’s National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), calls “the French model.”

“We like to have the best of both worlds,” says Florant. “To develop strong creative and technical knowhow, and then to put those skills at the service of international producers.”

Below are four elements of that French model:

• Line producers

Like international adaptors, local production service facilitators deliver Hollywood production requirements through French working conditions. Among the key companies leading the charge are Peninsula Film, which delivered for “Dunkirk” and “The Last Duel”; Firstep, which let loose David Fincher’s “The Killer” and guides “Emily in Paris”; Froggie Prods., which assembled English-speaking crews for “The Veil,” “Jack Ryan” and “Atlanta”; and Cactus Films, which recently eased the crossing for Netflix’s “Transatlantic.”

• Seasoned animators Benefiting from a healthy export market and from internationally renowned training programs, France cultivates seasoned animators and VFX artists as much as it does wine or luxury goods. So when looking for talent, some major studios tap right from the source. Since 2011, for instance, Illumination Studios Paris has delivered all manner of Minion (and now, “Super Mario”) mayhem from an outwardly unassuming studio just a step from the Eiffel Tower. That small, mustachioed plumber of Japanese origin and Italian background at the heart of this year’s animation smash was, in fact, made in France.

• VFX bonus

Revamped to include a 10% VFX bonus in 2020, the TRIP incentives program now offers a 40% rebate on all eligible expenses — including for live-action spends that are not VFX-related — to projects whose digital expenses surpass $2.2 million spent on local soil. Last year, 11 productions benefited from the full rebate. While bolstering the Paris-based branches of global VFX studios One of Us and MPC Episodic, the tax incentive has also encouraged the wider growth of the local VFX industry. One of Us, for instance, worked on “John Wick 4” out of Paris, and split duties on Netflix’s “Luther” between Paris and London.

• Crews that inspire loyalty

So taken was he with his experience shooting “The French Dispatch” in the city of Angouleme, director Wes Anderson took much of his French crew with him to Spain to shoot “Asteroid City.” “French crews are very productive,” says Florant. “They know how to be extremely efficient within the French ecosystem, which has its strengths and specificities — and that’s part of the French model. We want to work at our peak for international projects as for our own domestic productions.”

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