On April 4th the Institut Français and the Centre Nationale du Cinéma (CNC) organised a special evening to celebrate their funding system for international films, Aide aux cinémas du monde. Since these grants were initiated in 2012, 350 films from 90 countries have been helped. In the words of Frédérique Bredin, chair of the CNC, the Aide is now a true “mark of excellence”. Indeed 160 of the supported films have been screened at one of the big four competitive festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno).
Four French institutions created this grant-aid project in 2011: the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the CNC and the French Institute. With the aim of strengthening “the funding mechanisms for international co-productions in a foreign language” and expanding their geographical area, Aide aux cinémas du monde replaces the Fonds Sud (created in 1984 by Jack Lang) and Aide aux films en langue étrangère (AFLE), created by Marc Tessier in 1997.
Today, this selective CNC funding helps filmmakers and professionals around the world to work together by encouraging co-productions. It supports drama, animation and documentary projects in two ways: pre-production funding and post-production funding.
Every year around fifty projects are selected and benefit from this support, among them the Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven’s first feature, Mustang and The Insult by Iranian filmmaker Zias Doueiri. The country which has benefited most from the Aide aux cinémas du monde is Italy, with 20 projects supported — for example Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, winner of Best Scenario at Cannes last year.
During this special evening on April 4th, Frédérique Bredin praised the work done by the filmmakers and the role of France in film production. “Aide aux cinémas du monde is a mark of excellence, essential in helping us discover new talents and the big names of the future in world cinema. With this support France has helped the very best: Youssef Chahine, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar-Wai, and more recently Naomi Kawase, Jia Zhang-Ke, Matteo Garrone … More than ever, we need these filmmakers’ ways of looking at the world.”
Sources: https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels, http://www.lefilmfrancais.com, https://cineuropa.org
