International productions, foreign investment boost film jobs in Paris

The number of people working in the cinema and audiovisual production in the Paris region recovered slightly in 2010 after two tough years, the Ile de France Film Commission’s annual report on employment in the sector has revealed.

“2010 marks a return to a positive dynamic after the investment crisis in 2008 which resulted in a loss of jobs in 2009,” said film commission director Olivier-René Veillon.

The annual Observatory of Audiovisual and Cinema Production in the Ile-de-France is a joint initiative with Audiens, a compulsory mutual welfare fund aimed at people working in the audiovisual and communication industries.

The Ile de France Film Commission uses the Audiens data as an indicator of overall activity in the audiovisual and cinema sector.

According to Audiens statistics, the number of people permanently employed in the cinema and audiovisual sector rose to 19,840 in 2010, up from 19,760 in 2009, but below 20,628 in 2008.

Part-time workers rose to 110,701 in 2010, up from 110, 330 in 2009, but below the 113,972 people employed in the sector in 2008.   

Veillon put the 2010 rise down to two factors: an increase in foreign investment in French productions and a rise in international productions shooting in and around the city following the introduction of the French Tax Rebate for International Production (the TRIP).

“The effects of the TRIP began to be felt for the first time in 2010, generating some €119 million worth of activity,” noted Veillon.  “We had originally estimated a figure in the region of €100 million.”  

Data for 2011 has yet to be fully processed but Veillon said preliminary findings suggested the cinema and audiovisual sector’s workforce grew more than 7% in the Paris region last year.

He said the growth was due in part to the healthy French production scene in 2011, which saw a record 272 feature-length films approved by the CNC, ten more than 2010.

Behind this figure, however, Veillon noted that increased investment in the sector had come from foreign sources, rather than a rise in domestic investment.

Breaking the employment figures down, the study highlighted a number of companies that had been particularly active in terms of hiring.

In the lead was animation company Mc Guff Ligne, where salary declarations had risen by 61% in 2011. The animation specialist, which worked on Despicable Me and The Lorax, pacted with Universal in 2011 to create Illumination Mc Guff, a France-based company dedicated purely to producing animation work for the Hollywood studio.

Other bright spots on the employment front included Euro Media Studios, which saw its part-time workforce rise by 17% following increased activity in the audiovisual sector.

Looking to the future, the report noted the new Cité du Cinéma studio complex, being spearheaded by Luc Besson, should also further boost jobs in the sector when it opens later this year.