France's Sofica tax sheltersraised Euros 46 million in 2004, the country's central film body CNC announced yesterday.The figure is the maximum allowable and outdid 2003's total of Euros 41million.

Soficasare tax shelters werecreated to help diversify the financing of film and television productions andoffer a tax break to individual investors.

The outfits have anobligation to invest 90% of their annual collected total in cinema andtelevision for the coming year. For 2005, that figure will be Euros 41.1million.

In 2004, Soficas invested in55 films, of which 53 were initiated by the French, for a total investment ofEuros 27.67 million. An average Euros 500,000 was invested last year per filmwith most of the money going to films whose budget was north of Euros 7million.

2004 showed a markeddecrease in film investment on the part of the Soficas, down 29.5% on 2003,with a higher degree of investment going to television. However, 2003 was ananomaly with 2004's Sofica film investment falling within the range of otherrecent years.