Structural differences in the way films are financed and produced in the UK and France are the biggest stumbling blocks to closer collaboration between the two industries, said leading film executives at the Dinard Festival of British & Irish Film in France last week.
“What I’ve been told by all French producers who work with the UK is there’s a cultural barrier,” said Michel Plazanet, deputy director of international and European Affairs at the CNC, in reference to the the UK’s relationships with banks and copyright laws. “The way [the UK] considers the production of film, the way [the UK] considers the financing, the way of thinking is completely different.”
Grégory Gajos, acquisitions director from French producer and distributor Ad Vitam, which is the French partner on Andrea Arnold’s Bird, suggested UK producers were not fully aware of all of the benefits of working with a French partner.
“When we talk to UK producers, when we try to produce films, we have this feeling that their way of working, they are not really trying to understand what they can get from France,” he noted.
However, Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, said the majority of the projects on the BFI Filmmaking Fund’s slate were international co-productions. She said there was a “generational shift” within UK producers looking outside of their home territory and the US for partnerships.
“We had two movies in Cannes which were both UK-India co-productions [Sister Midnight and Santosh], they looked like Indian films but are majority not. You have a whole diaspora of filmmakers who are not bound to make a film in English. You have completely different new generational energy,” said Bays.
She was enthusiastic about the UK being open for serious business with regards to co-production.
“We’re about to do a big French-UK co-production, I can’t say who it is, but it’s a very famous French director making a UK film in English,” said Bays. “The world is small, we’re not bound to English language, we’re here to do everything we can to change these cultural blocks and do everything we can to ease the way.”
Bays noted UK producers are working closely with French sales agents. “Most of our slate at the moment is [with] French sales agents,” said Bays. “There is more support in France [than in the UK] for sales agents. The UK sales agents, there are much less subsidies to support them, so therefore they have to function on a much more commercial model. You really have to make the numbers work.”
BFI-backed films repped by French sales agents include How To Have Sex and Santosh, both with mk2.
Irish filmmakers are working increasingly frequently with French sales agents, said Louise Ryan, head of marketing and communication at Screen Ireland. “Traditionally, our filmmakers worked with a lot of UK sales agents, but we’re really building very strong relationships with French sales agents as well. That’s a huge priority for us – we want our films to be seen in cinema. We’re a cinema-first agency… There is very strong alliance with that cultural, creative vision that Europe has.”
UK-Ireland co-productions repped by French distributors include Charades, who has Bring Them Down and Kneecap, while mk2 is selling upcoming BFI London Film Festival premiere Four Mothers.
Better communication
Of all the French distributors at the table - Bénédicte Thomas from Arizona Distribution, Mathieu Robinet from Tandem Films, Anne-Cecile Rolland from Pyramide Films and Martin Jerome from Condor Films – none had heard of the UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF). The fund was established post-Brexit by the UK government to help UK sales agents and producers foster international collaboration.
“It does seem there’s need for better communication,” said director Anne Duncan, director at the British Council France.
Duncan sees the change in UK government, following Labour’s election in in July, as an important opportunity to help reframe the UK’s international cultural partnerships.
“We are in an opportunity space, leaning into what could be the next version and vision around culture and creative industries, at which film is at the top,” said Duncan. “Government is definitely sending signals.”
She also hinted there could be changes to the UK-France co-production agreement coming soon, which was first signed in 1966. “At the very high levels, there is discussion around co-production and a refresh on that agreement.”
Equity investors
The execs also discussed the differences in the support available for filmmakers in France and in the UK, with France’s CNC enjoying a budget of around €700m (£586m), raised through a cinema-ticket levy. Through National Lottery support, the BFI has around £45m per year, with £18m earmarked for production/development.
In 2023, the market share for UK-qualifying films at the UK box office was around 3.8%, Bays noted, while in France, the market share of French films was 39.8%.
In the absence of France’s impressive state support, Bays championed getting more equity funding into the UK production sector. “We need to introduce more equity, and other funding, and philanthropic money into the sector,” said Bays. “EIS [Enterprise Investment Scheme] and SEIS [Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme] tax breaks don’t exist in the UK in the way they used to be… The philanthropy you see in the US doesn’t exist here.”
“Equity investors are looking for a faster return than the cinema provides,” added Andrew Mason, the Australia-based producer at Brouhaha Entertainment. “Cinema, traditionally, the returns are spread over longer periods of time.”
“A lot of equity money goes into Broadway or theatre or rock and roll,” continued Mason. Those things turn over quickly. The nature of a Broadway show – you’ve covered the cost in the first five or six weeks, if it lasts longer than that, great, here comes the money. In film, it’s years.”
With philanthropic money, it was noted, comes risks. James Watson, the UK producer of Sebastian, pointed out: “A lot of billionaires and people with lots of money become billionaires through immoral means. Do we want to become entangled with them as filmmakers?”
“Europe should regard state funding as a huge strength,” noted the Irish producer of Twig, Tommy Weir. “We should build on, and not apologise for it.”
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