France is now a go-to shooting destination to replicate territories such as Hollywood, Mexico and Iraq

No longer just a place to capture Postcard Paris, France has become a one-stop shop to shoot other global locations — from Hollywood and New York to Italy, Spain, Jordan, Baghdad and beyond — with many productions even opting to come for VFX work alone.

France offers the Tax Rebate for International Productions (TRIP), a rebate of 30% of the eligible production spend with a cap of $32.1m (€30m). The figure rises 10% when VFX expenses surpass $2.1m (€2m) on local soil.

Last year saw a sharp decline in the number of TRIP-approved productions to 55, down from 89 projects in 2023 and 100 in 2022, representing $528m (€493m) in commitments to spend. The drop was due to a combination of factors including the 2024 Olympic Games that limited production in Paris for several months, the impact of 2023’s Hollywood writers and actors strikes and an industry­wide paring down of streamer investment in content. Also of note, according to Arnaud Roland, deputy head of digital at CNC, the country’s national film board, is “the fact streamers are increasingly integrating the French model”, which has repatriated several local language films and series that access local incentives instead of the foreign tax credit.

At the same time, overall domestic spending remains at an all-time high of $3.2bn (€3bn) for the second year in a row.

Faking it

Films and series set outside France increasingly opt to shoot both in studio and on location in the territory. Oscar winners such as Emilia Perez reproduced Mexico in Paris-adjacent Studios de Bry while The Substance recreated Hollywood at Studios d’Epinay in the south of France.

“International productions are no longer simply coming because they have scenes in France or because of the competitive tax credit,” suggests Roland. “They are coming to benefit from an entire ecosystem that combines infrastructure, talents and savoir-faire.”

“France is not just for stories happening in France anymore,” adds Daphné Lora, who heads up Film France — CNC.

Ilya Naishuller’s action comedy Heads Of State, starring Idris Elba and John Cena, shot in France last spring for Amazon MGM Studios. Originally set to film on location in Italy and in a UK studio, the project shut down due to the Holly­wood strikes then relocated to France where everything was shot in one place. Scenes set in Italy, the US, the UK, Spain, Germany, Croatia and Poland were all filmed in Victorine Studios in Nice and in the surrounding area. “We filmed for seven different countries and none of them were France,” says the film’s on-the-ground producer John Bernard of Peninsula Film.

James Hawes’ espionage thriller The Amateur, starring Rami Malek and Rachel Brosnahan, shot scenes set in Paris and Marseille in those cities, but also filmed for Romania and Turkey in Marseille and nearby Martigues and Ponteau. Marseille’s bay also provided the backdrop for scenes set in the Baltic Sea and Finnish waters. Prime Target, a New Regency and Scott Free co-production for Apple TV+, filmed scenes set in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in the south of France, also taking advantage of the diverse local population to cast extras.

AGC Television’s thriller series Vanished, starring Kaley Cuoco and Sam Claflin, kicked off an eight-week shoot at the end of April in Marseille, shooting the city for itself and replicating Jordan in the nearby countryside. It is filming extensively on the LED stage at Provence Studios in Martigues, because of “the real value of the 40% rebate for VFX in France”, explains Bernard.

“More and more, we can ‘cheat’ and shoot other destinations in France,” adds line producer Raphael Benoliel of Firstep.

AMC opted to film all the first and second seasons of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in France, for a total of 12 episodes over 160 shooting days. The project employed a 99% French crew, while VFX was handled by BUF, Mathematic and The Yard. It was given access to iconic locations such as Mont Saint-Michel and, in Paris, the Louvre, the Metro, Bir Hakeim bridge, Place Saint-Georges and several locations that were transformed into pre and post-apocalyptic environments.

Executive producer Steven Squillante says the decision to bring the famed horror franchise to French shores was an easy one. “France provided a strong crew base, globally recognised iconic landmarks and locations, a rich history from which to draw potential storylines, a good vendor ecosystem, and varied geography to support the stranger in a strange land bend to Daryl’s journey. [The territory has] strong national and regional government support, all backed up with a generous tax incentive programme to support not only our work but the growth and evolution of the film and television business in France.”

Augustin Chastel de Belloy, co-founder and producer at Paris and Los Angeles-based LEFT, worked with Firstep on local production for both seasons. “Our mission was to bring the highest level of production value and scope to the series, while expanding the boundaries of its universe,” he says. “After all, who hasn’t dreamed of destroying the Eiffel Tower?”

“We had an excellent experience in France that was pillared by strong government support for our endeavour, wonderful support from the locations we shot at, and a crew that became like a family to us,” adds Squillante.

Producer Roberto Malerba, whose credits include Cathy Yan’s upcoming The Gallerist, starring Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega, and Netflix series Sense 8 — both shot in France — also cites the enthusiasm of local crews. “France has very strict working laws. You can’t shoot more than 50 hours in one week, which puts extra pressure on the director to finish on time. But because they have a set salary coming in and aren’t pushing for overtime, there is a very positive moviemaking atmosphere among the French crews. They love making movies. And since no-one is doing overtime, it reduces costs and make it easier to stay on budget.”

Widening appeal

While Hollywood, the UK and streamers tend to dominate such hefty spending, other countries are increasingly coming to shoot in France. Nele Mueller-Stöfen’s German debut feature Delicious, which premiered at 2025’s Berlinale then globally on Netflix in March, shot in Provence, and Netflix’s Swedish comedy Je M’Appelle Agneta, produced by SF Studios, shot in Occitania.

Michal Kwiecinski’s Chopin, A Sonata In Paris, a Polish indie produced by Warsaw-based Akson Studio, shot in Bordeaux for 15 days in October 2024 to mimic the aesthetics of pre-Haussmann Paris. “Usually productions come to Poland because it makes sense economically, but in this case, we couldn’t find locations conducive to the time period and we couldn’t have found a better place than Bordeaux, which looks exactly like Paris before Haussmann,” explains executive producer Tomek Morawski of Poland’s HAKA Films.

The $19.3m (€18m) film centres on composer Chopin and his escapades in Paris at the start of the 19th century. With a set that Morawski describes as “a live museum”, the production cast 500 extras for the sprawling costume drama that employed some 150 crew members. “Bordeaux was so welcoming. Local production teams were able to close down entire streets at a time,” he says.

The hospitality extended to the on-set dining options, with the crew known to give regular standing ovations to the catering staff during lunch breaks.

As production spreads more evenly across the territory, the Paris region still accounts for more than 50% of filming days in France. The Ile-de-France region supported 165 films and audiovisual projects in 2024, for a total of more than $18.5m (€17.3m) through its various support schemes.

Netflix’s Emily In Paris, handled locally by Firstep, has begun shooting its fifth season between France and Italy, straddling tax incentives in both countries. Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s Prime Video series Etoile shot between Paris and New York last year, even using France to shoot certain scenes set in New York and recreating an opera house at Epinay Studios, where The Substance was filmed.

Apple TV+ shot scenes from the second instalment of Mark Wahlberg-starrer The Family Plan in Paris earlier this year. “It was complicated but we were able to stop traffic completely around the legendary Place du Tertre in Montmartre,” says Firstep’s Benoliel. “It was as if we’d filmed in a studio but on location, which wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else.”

Apple also shot an episode of the second season of book-to-screen adaptation The Last Thing He Told Me, starring Jennifer Garner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, for seven days in late March/early April. The Hello Sunshine project, with Xavier Roy of Froggie Production on board for local line production, filmed in Paris at Gare de Lyon train station, the famous Pont Neuf bridge, the scenic Square du Vert-Galant along the Seine, and in Marseille at Marché de Noailles outdoor market and Vallon des Auffes seaside neighbourhood. Upcoming Ryan Murphy series The Beauty also visited Paris in April.

Drawing cards

VFX and animation capacity continues to grow in France. Animated projects made here with the TRIP include the second season of Fortiche’s Netflix series Arcane, and Blue Spirit’s Blue Eye Samurai in Paris and Angoulême. Moving forward, says CNC’s Roland, “Discussions are intensifying with Japanese producers looking for production capacity and savoir-faire, particularly in XR/VR technologies, where France is on the cutting edge.”

On the VFX side, the average expenditure per TRIP-approved project has tripled since 2021 for an average of $3.4m (€3.2m) spent per project. Examples include Prime Video’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power (The Yard), Netflix’s 3 Body Problem (BUF) and Apple TV+’s Constellation (Mathematic and One Of Us).

Film France — CNC continues to take major steps to woo foreign productions and has launched a series of “inspiration tours” including to Strasbourg in December with filmmakers and US and UK executives from the likes of A24, A&E, Carnival and InkFactory, then a “business tour” dedicated to VFX in Paris in March 2025, with attendees from Disney, Netflix, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. A planned “good morning, west” inspiration tour in Brittany and the Loire Valley is planned for the autumn.

In larger-scale efforts, the $375m (€350m) Great Image Factory initiative, part of the French government’s $58bn (€54bn) France 2030 plan, is now starting to reap the benefits of its investments as several studios plan to unveil their overhauled spaces between mid-2026 and early 2027. Studios de Bry is building seven new sets and has launched a slew of renovations set to be completed by the end of 2026.

TSF’s studio — nicknamed the Backlot because it replicates Paris streets in Coulommiers, east of the capital — is fully operational (it staged scenes with former footballer Zinedine Zidane to open the Paris Olympic Games). The facility will see further set construction to accommodate new projects. Down south, Provence Studios in Martigues is revamping six sets, among other ongoing renovations. Bolstered programmes to train the next generation include new classes for screenwriters and producers focused on European co-productions, and two new courses at the Cinéfabrique film school for VFX and set design. Paris’s Ecole Georges Méliès, in partnership with Sony, has already installed a virtual set with the latest generation of LED screens and training modules for students in virtual filming.

Other top filmmaking talents are flocking to France to both film and pull from a large talent pool. Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, about Jean-Luc Godard’s filming of Breathless, produced by France’s ARP Selection with Linklater’s Detour Filmproduction, shot entirely on location in and around Paris; while Scarlett Johansson worked with French cinematographer Hélène Louvart for her directorial debut Eleanor The Great.