The far right is targeting France’s film funding model tied to CNC taxes and levies, as the industry argues it protects against Hollywood dominance.
“You have to find a way to protect yourself from the juggernaut of American cinema — and this is coming from someone who loves American cinema.” The French Connection France by many metrics boasts mainland Europe’s most successful cinema industry.. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, France had Europe’s highest cinema attendance in 2024, the most recent year for which confirmed figures are available.. A quarter of all admissions to European films from 2015 to
2024 were sold in France, per the observatory.. No other country in the European Union exported more movies abroad than France during that time period.. At the heart of France’s unique system of funding cinema is the CNC.. Created after World War II, the center supports the production of hundreds of films shot in France and abroad each year.. Of the 84 films submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered for
this year’s Oscar for Best International Film, 20 of them were supported by the CNC.. All five nominees were French coproductions, and four of them received assistance from the CNC.. “We have one of the best models in the world.. It’s not just me saying this — it’s the whole world.. The French and European models are envied and imitated,” CNC President Gaëtan Bruel told POLITICO.. The CNC is financed through taxes on movie theater
tickets; television services paid for by broadcasters and distributors; the sale of DVDs and Blu-rays; and on streaming platforms like YouTube and Netflix.. Those levies brought in €810 million in 2024, the most recent year for which consolidated figures are available, helping giant productions like “The Count of Monte Cristo” pay for visual effects or grants to small-budget films like “Souleymane’s Story,” which tells the poignant tale of an immigrant in Paris struggling to obtain
asylum.
French cinema funding, CNC, far-right politics, Hollywood competition, Oscars international film, streaming levies