The CNC’s Aide aux Cinemas du Monde (World Cinema Aid) film fund for supporting feature film co-productions between France and the rest of the world had a record year at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The fund supported 16 films in various sections, with a record six titles winning main Competition prizes: Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Grand Prix), Oliver Laxe’s Sirat (Jury Prize), Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (best director and best actor) and Bi Gan’s Resurrection (special award).
Eight films from the official Competition were supported by the fund in all, also a record. The others were Tarik Saleh’s Eagles Of The Republic, Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir and Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors.
Other Aide aux Cinemas du Monde-supported films included Chilean writer-director Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo which took the top prize in Un Certain Regard; Arab and Tarzan Nasser’s Once Upon A Time In Gaza which won that section’s directing award; and Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s comedy drama A Useful Ghost which won the Critics’ Week Grand Prix.
“The Aide aux Cinemas du Monde fund is the most important selective aid for French companies like us to co-produce films from international filmmakers,” said David Thion, associate producer of It Was Just An Accident alongside his Les Films Pelleas’ partner Philippe Martin, who produced with Panahi. Around €160,000 of the film’s €1m budget came from the fund.
“This aid is necessary, but also very competitive. It is one of the most selective support systems for financing and very difficult to obtain,” added Martin.
Since its launch in 2012, the scheme has funded 695 projects, including 590 feature films, 92 documentaries, 11 animated titles and two hybrid films. Some 65 films are supported each year.
Films that receive the grant are determined by committees featuring top industry figures. The projects submitted must be part of a co-production between a production company based in France and one abroad.
Since its creation, 193 women directors have benefited from the fund, representing 28% of projects supported. Over the past two years, this proportion has risen to 35%.
French cinema had a strong showing at this year’s festival with 40 feature films selected out of a total of 111 programmed across all sections.
“This year’s prize list, which includes six French films or films supported by France out of the eight awarded, demonstrates more than ever that our system of support for creation, an illustration of cultural exceptionalism, is the most open to the diversity of world cinema,” said France’s culture minister Rachida Dati.
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