French cultural minister Rima Abdul Malak underlined France’s commitment to international investment and addressed the current political upheaval that has spilled over into the Cannes Film Festival during a first-ever conversation with international press in Cannes.
Abdul Malak, who was appointed in 2022, discussed how the French filmmaking community can better connect with the wider global film industry.
“André Malraux, my predecessor, used to say that cinema was an art and also an industry and it’s important to have a public policy that supports our industry and creation,” she said. She added: “Industry isn’t a bad word – it doesn’t mean we’re not creative.”
Abdul Malak is in Cannes where she unveiled the 68 projects selected for the French government’s €350m ’The Great Image Factory’ initiative on Friday (May 19).
While French-produced and co-produced films dominate the 2023 Cannes festival, Abdul Malak said infrastructure remains a challenge for the country, which they hope their recently-announced investment in studios and training will change in the coming years.
“We need to develop our infrastructure. We have beautiful landscapes and cities, but more and more shoots are happening in studios and our studios are small and not modernised enough.”
The push to revamp studio space and hone talent is meant to bolster the domestic industry, but also woo foreign productions and keep the territory competitive on an international landscape. Abdul Malak said that attracting foreign productions has a “huge economic impact,” adding that “when you shoot a film, if €1 is spent on filming, it brings €7.6 in economic impact for nearby hotels, restaurants and local jobs.”
The current TRIP foreign tax rebate of up to 30% of the eligible production spend that was then boosted to a 40% in 2020 for VFX work.
This is in place until the end of 2024. Malak said that for now they are not working on changing it again as it is “already pretty competitive,” but it will be debated next year.
She added that a second challenge for the sector is talent: “We lack creative talent from screenwriters to animators,” said Malak.
The Great Image Factory investment includes 34 projects in the training and education space, with the aim of doubling the number of people who will be trained from around 5,000 today to 10,000 by 2023.
Keeping the focus on the global industry, Malak also highlighted how France has the biggest number of co-production agreements in the world, with the country signing its 61st co-production agreement with Ireland in December.
Politics and culture collide
As for the current political unrest around pension reforms in France that has seen workers’ union the CGT threaten to pull the plug on electricity at the festival, the cultural minister isn’t surprised by politics and culture combining.
She explained: “The history of Cannes has always been very political. Cannes was created in response to fascism so they have always been very connected. Cultural policy is tied to democracy in France and the film industry is as well and Cannes is the prime example of that.”
The minister added: “Today, I think the major danger is the far right. I would love for the CGT and all their friends to be with us in this fight. Our common enemy should be the far right, we shouldn’t be threatening a festival like Cannes.”
Another hot button issue facing the French film industry and its relationship with international streamers and studios has been the country’s media chronology laws, whereby streamers like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney need to wait 15-17 months for feature films to hit their platforms.
Abdul Malak said that while the system needs to shift to adapt to an ever-changing audiovisual landscape, no major changes will be happening anytime soon.
“It’s now time to move the windows a little bit, they could be shorter, but we need to go step by step and find an agreement between all the segments [of the film and audiovisual industries],” she said, adding: “We have a very specific system in France. We need to preserve our network of cinemas in France.”
The minister also defended her decision to renew the mandated term for current head of France’s CNC Dominique Boutonnat despite his indictment for alleged sexual assault. She pointed out that Boutonnat hasn’t gone to trial yet and that “The presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle for our democracy in France. I respect that right. I respect the law. I’m not going to substitute myself for the judicial system and make decisions before a trial has happened.”
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