2023-09-20 16:56:03
The Court of Auditors joins the debate on public support for French cinema, deploring that too many films do not find their audience in theaters. In a report unveiled on Wednesday, the highest financial court looks at more than a decade (2011-2022) of management of the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC), which depends on the Ministry of Culture.
“A thorough reform of aid”
Its report is laudatory for a public institution which generates nearly 700 million euros in annual resources for the sector, which it has enabled to get through the pandemic and adapt to the arrival of platforms like Netflix.
But one of its recommendations risks making noise: the Court of Auditors calls for “a thorough reform of aid” to cinema, too numerous – around a hundred – and too complex for its taste. Enough to relaunch the debate barely six months later the intense controversy launched by the words of director Justine Triet, upon receiving her Palme d’Or at Cannes for “Anatomy of a Fall”.
She had taken the public authorities to task, accused of wanting to “break” the cultural exception and sacrifice aid to young authors on the altar of profitability. “Ungrateful and unfair,” replied the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, before the political world took up the subject.
Only 2% of supported films are profitable in theaters
The diagnosis of the Court of Auditors is intended to be nuanced. “We are not advocating that there be fewer films, but to ensure that there are fewer films that do not meet their audience,” insisted the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, in front of the press. The Court takes care to recall that the CNC remains guarantor “of the French model, known as cultural exception, combining independent production and creativity”. It is this model “which has enabled the maintenance of a market share of French films of almost 40%”, she adds.
But financial magistrates point out the fact that aid to cinema continues to increase, while more and more films do not find their audience in theaters. A third of French films attracted fewer than 20,000 spectators in 2019, compared to a quarter a decade earlier.
The Court also looks at their profitability. Only 2% of films supported by the advance on receipts, the most emblematic aid to art-house cinema, are profitable in theaters, according to the Court’s calculations, which does not take into account their subsequent exploitation. Certain authors are frequently supported, such as the documentary filmmaker Claire Simon, financed seven times in ten years, Arnaud Despleschin (five times), or Justine Triet (four times), she underlines. Tax credits for cinema have jumped (160 million euros in 2022) – which also reflects the boom in filming.
“We are not saying that there are too many films and that profitability must be the only criterion, since the CNC is there so that cinema can escape this logic of money, but a rationalization for greater efficiency is desirable”, qualified Pierre Moscovici.
Correct CNC supports
In its response to the Court of Auditors, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance said it “shares the observation of a very high level of supported films” and the “need to reform support”. But the president of the CNC, Dominique Boutonnat, regrets that the Court “analyzes almost exclusively the performance (of this policy) in the light of the success of subsidized films in theaters”. So that films find their audience, the CNC works on their distribution, image education, support for festivals, aid to cinemas, arthouses in particular…
Matignon agrees, emphasizing that we must take into account “the renewal of creation, the diversity of films offered to the public and the international influence of our cinema”, all facets “which, in this case, prove to be positive”. It will be necessary to “correct the support of the CNC, the effectiveness of which does not appear convincing”, adds the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, “so that French film production is seen by as wide an audience as possible”.
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