The French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, together with the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Region, the City of Marseille and the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis have signed a memorandum of understanding on cinema and the film industry.
This agreement is part of Marseille en grand, a three-year plan announced by President Macron in September 2021: “We are going to create major studios in the Mediterranean region,” he said, “and they will provide the infrastructure for making major films and major series. Technicians and creative people will be needed, and schools to train them.”
The plan specifies that the French State will provide €22.5 million to finance four projects. The first, costing €15 million, is to build in Marseille an off-shoot of CinéFabrique, a film school currently based in Lyon. The new school will offer a free three-year professional training course. Secondly an annex to the Cinémathèque française (€5 million) will be built for screenings, exhibitions and other cultural events. The Belle de Mai media centre will be modernised (€1.5 million) and lastly there will be a temporary logistics base (€1 million) to accommodate film crews.
Marseille is already the second most popular location for film-making in France, with 1,200 days a year. The Culture Minister hopes this project “will make Marseille the Mediterranean’s film-making capital.”
Sources: Radio France, France Info, Box Office Pro
