French hospitality group Accor, along with champagne house Vranken-Pommery Monopole and banking giant BNP Paribas, are among major French companies coming together to launch a three-year endowment fund to promote French film and TV projects and talents around the world.
Promotional body Unifrance will administer the endowment fund, which is tax deductible for companies, and use it to complement its existing activities and support fresh initiatives. Unifrance declined to reveal the value of the fund.
Accor is the ‘major patron’, with Sofitel and MGallery CEO Maud Bailly presiding over the fund and Unifrance president Gilles Pélission serving as vice-chairman. Unifrance board members Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas, TOP- The Originals Productions CEO Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet and acting president of the CNC Olivier Henrard, will also sit on the new fund’s board of directors.
Further companies are expected to join.
Unifrance, which is majority financed by the CNC with the ministry of foreign affairs, has an existing €16m budget for 2025.
“The fund is an extra bonus that will allow us to bring a bigger and more diverse talent pool to our global events from series to animation, documentary and shorts, and support the next generation of rising talents,” explained Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance. “The more money we have, the more ideas we’ll have.”
Elstner added rising inflation has caused travel and hospitality costs to skyrocket.
The endowment fund will allow the organisation to bring the ‘10 to Watch’ talents to its Rendez-Vous event in New York in March.
Unifrance is also launching ‘Club Unifrance’ which will gather various partners under one roof as a hub for talent promotion, press junkets and events, beginning in Berlin next month.
“The idea is to bring together a ‘Team France’ at major festivals throughout the year,” explained Unifrance president Giles Pélission.
The Berlin venue will be located nearby Potsdamer Platz and host artists, international press, producers and partners, similar to its Unifrance terrace at the Cannes Film Festival which it hopes to expand under the same model. Unifrance also plans to roll out Club Unifrance at Venice, Busan and San Sebastian.
Rendez-vous highlights
The year has already started off on a positive note with Unifrance’s packed Rendez-Vous With French Cinema that wrapped on Friday (January 17) at the new market venue, Pullman Montparnasse. and new screening hub, Pathé Parnasse. Some 500 buyers from 40 territories were in town to shop robust line-ups from 80 French film and TV sales companies.
Larger stands, a more vibrant neighbourhood in the Left Bank beside the Montparnasse Tower for dinner and deal-making meetings, and a much talked-about central café that allowed buyers and sellers to come together, created a bustling atmosphere.
“Sales agents were busy making deals from Tuesday through closing time on Friday,” reported Elstner.
Popular market titles included Pathe International’s Mercato, directed by Tristan Seguela, which was the most-attended market screening, along with Jean-Pierre Améris’ It Takes Two to Tango, being sold by Indie Sales, Fabienne Godet’s Guess Who Is Calling? screening fresh from the Alpe d’Huez comedy festival where it won the special jury prize, Le Pacte’s Not All Men But… from Michel Leclerc, and SND’s family comedy See The Sea starring Dany Boon and Audrey Fleurot.
French films grossed an estimated €250.2m in international markets in 2024 from 38.1 million admissions, according to projected annual figures from Unifrance . This is a 11% drop from the year before, but Unifrance expects the robust box office at home in 2024 will carry over into the months ahead.
“Most of the successful films were released in the latter part of the year in France, so now we are aiming to ride the wave into 2025,” said Pelisson. “Our mission is to translate this impact into the overseas box office. We’re optimistic.”
“We’ve had back- to- back years of Anatomy Of A Fall then Emilia Perez, not to mention films like Dahomey and a strong showing at the European Film Awards,” added Elstner. “Giving buyers and press confidence in French production – that’s our goal.”
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