France has earmarked Euros 40m for its newlycreated tax credit scheme for the film and television sectors.

The funding has been made available in an effortto stem runaway production and keep up with successful tax based film supportsystems in countries like the UK. The money will become available at the startof 2005.

Culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres madethe announcement when unveiling 2005's culture budget last week. The overallculture budget has risen 5.9% to Euros 2.79bn.

The tax credit, or credit d'impot, allowsmajority French films to write off between 10% and 20% of below the line costs- such as post-production, crew, transportation, art and set work - providedthat it is done locally.

A cap of Euros 500,000 was put on the scheme whenit came into effect in January 2004 in order to benefit smaller films. It nowappears that the cap will be increased.

So far, the system has been successful with 72%of shooting weeks being completed in France as opposed to 28% in foreignterritories this year.

Meanwhile Donnedieu de Vabres also said that the"one euro for two" budget will rise from Euros 10m to Euros 12.5m for 2005.That scheme sees France's Film Commission, the CNC, kick in one euro for everytwo spent on a film in specific regions.