CNC reveals details of new World Cinema Fund

France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) has unveiled more details of its new World Cinema Fund which launched at the beginning of May, replacing the Fond Sud and Aid to Foreign Language Films (AFLE).

“We’ve received some 90 submissions in the first call,” CNC president Eric Garandeau revealed at the body’s annual Cannes conference on Tuesday.

The first selected projects are due to be announced at the end of July.

A second call for projects will take place from June 4-15. Submissions can be made online only.  Other calls are scheduled for end August and October.

The new €6m subsidy is run jointly by the CNC, cultural body the Institut Français, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Its selection process is divided into two categories: one selection for debut and second-time directors and a second, for established filmmakers.

A CNC-run committee, headed by Cannes Cinefondation chief Georges Goldenstern, will select the projects by established directors.

The Institut Français is responsible for the selection of first and second-time projects. Its committee is headed by Argentine screenwriter and director Santiago Amigorena.

The amount granted to individual selected projects will be up to €250,000 for projects prior to production and €50,000 for films in post-production.

The CNC expects to back some 40-60 productions in total over a 12-month period.

The new fund is a joint initiative between the CNC, cultural body the Institut Français, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

The submitted projects will be divided into two categories, one aimed at established directors and another at first and second-time filmmakers.

The presidents of the CNC and the Institut Français will decide the division of the subsidy with the expert advice of a selection committee composed of established cinema professionals. Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha [pictured] (Anonymes, The Sun Assassinated, Barakat!) will oversee the committee in the fund’s first year.

French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterand announced the creation of the new fund at the CNC’s annual conference in Cannes last year. It has taken nearly a year to get European Commission approval for the subsidy and set the mechanism in motion.