France to support film studio growth
May 23, 2023
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak has unveiled the results of La Grande Fabrique de l’image, a national call for projects that aims to double the country’s film studio capacity to lead 153, 000 square metres by 2030.
As part of this initiative, announced at the Cannes Film Festival, €350 million in funding will be distributed, including animation and VFX studios, as well as post-production and training. Malak announced that 68 projects out of 175 hopefuls had been selected into twelve different regions.
The eleven film studios given a green light include existing ones such as Bry-sur-Marne, TSF Studios, Dark Matters and la Montjoie near Paris, Terralab Solutions near Reims, Provence Studios Marseille/Provence Studios Martigues, france.tv studio and La Victorine in Southern France as well as new lots such as Les studios de Bailly (Paris), Union Studios in Tourcoing and Pics Studio in Occitanie.
The French government expects this will help France to position itself as a “leader in continental Europe” and multiply fourfold the backlots size so as to reach 187,000 square meters of outside settings.
Currently ranked fourth with 23 film studios, France aims to attract more international productions and compete with other Europeans studios such as Pinewood and Babelsberg in the UK and Germany respectively.
The training scheme anticipates handling up to 10,000 students per year.
The selected projects are yet to learn about the level of funding they will receive. To submit the tender, the film studios must forecast investment above €10 million.