After the questioning of the CNC’s Aid Fund Commission on social media and the recurring attacks on its operation, ACID, ADDOC, the Guild of Screenwriters, ARP, SCA, and SRF call on political leaders to defend our country’s cultural sovereignty.
Recalling the recent incident that led the CNC to remove the video creator Ultia from the Aid Fund Commission on social media platforms – after some clumsy remarks for which she apologized – the six professional organizations express their outrage at the “torrent of gross falsehoods about CNC funding and its alleged ideological orientation” on social media, including threats against CNC staff. Gaëtan Bruel has decided to temporarily suspend the work of this commission, stating that out of 740 supported projects in 8 years, only 30 cases were problematic. “We regret that the CNC was forced to bow to these attacks without any effective support from political leaders and call for the reopening of this system or its equivalent,” declare the filmmakers from SRF, ARP, ACID, SCA, ADDOC, and the Guild of Screenwriters, offering “their full support to the CNC, its staff, and all members of its commissions.”
They point out that the CNC commissions consist of professionals from different backgrounds and complementary expertise present throughout the film production and distribution chain. “Their expertise is not based on their opinions, but on criteria of formal inventiveness and artistic relevance.” Citing support figures for creation (around 3% for short films and around 10% for advance on receipts), a minority share of one of the most competitive industrial sectors, they emphasize that the public financing system of French cinema is “the opposite of any mythical ‘left-wing groupthink’ where everyone would share its subsidies.”
Another factual reality: “France is one of the European countries where the public share of film financing is the lowest (27% for French initiative films compared to 47% for European films in 2025), while at the same time it has the highest market share for national films.” Knowing how distinguished, programmed, and acclaimed French films are worldwide, they also highlight, “for as long as necessary, that the CNC budget does not come from ‘French money’ but solely relies on sector-specific taxes paid by publishers, distributors, platforms, and operators when they broadcast films, regardless of their origin.”
It is also important to remember that in 1946, “the creation of the CNC was the subject of wide consensus that brought together all political forces from right to left,” responding to the question of cultural sovereignty and access to culture for all. Therefore, the signatories call on “political leaders and all those committed to the vibrancy of French cinema and all audiovisual sectors, to denounce with us these destroyers and their attacks on its pillar, the CNC, and to defend our country’s cultural sovereignty.”
