Thanks to virtuous measures and in the face of the dereliction of certain foreign industries, France has established itself in recent years as an essential producer for international cinema.
What do the five nominees for the Oscar for best international film in 2026 have in common, namely the winner Sentimental value de Joachim Trier (Norvège), SirÄt d’Óliver Laxe (Spain), The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia), L’Agent secret by Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil) et A simple accident de Jafar Panahi (Iran) ?
A sixth country, France, co-producer of all these films and even sponsor in the last case: the request being submitted by national authorities to the Academy, the commission chose to come to the aid of Panahi’s film, censored by the mullahs’ regime, and to make it the candidate hexagonal in place of its potential French-speaking competitors.
France, welcoming land
Would international auteur cinema actually become French cinema? In any case, it is often done through its financing, thanks to several public funds provided by the CNC, Arte or certain Regions. The country of cultural exception has thus become an essential ally for multiple centers of auteur cinema such as Romania (Cristian Mungiu with Why Not, Corneliu Porumboiu with Les Films du Worso), Portugal (Miguel Gomes with Shellac), India (Payal Kapadia with Petit Chaos)… Films shot in their country and in their original language, but often edited and mixed here, willingly put into motion under the effect of the decisive pre-purchase of a distributor or a French channel, sometimes by obtaining dedicated aid.
“Traditionally, France has long been a country curious about foreign cinematography at the production level†, recalls Olivier Père, former critic now director of Arte France Cinéma. “We can go back to the 1980s with the Gaumont of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, who produced Fellini, Wajda.†A tradition today extended by people like Sylvie Pialat, producer of, among others, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jonás Trueba; or like Saïd Ben Saïd, producer of several films by Kleber Mendonça Filho (but not the last one), David Cronenberg (who no longer receives a dollar from Hollywood), Nadav Lapid.
A tradition also supported, therefore, by our redistributive system: created in 2012, Aid to World Cinemas supports around sixty French co-productions in a foreign language each year, for an average budget of €160,000, which can go up to three times as much. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she has, since then, had her share in the history of world cinema, even that she has, to her extent, shaped her face: a Palme d’Or (Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan in 2014), a Golden Bear, two Silver Lions… Last year, a third of the Cannes Competition benefited.
Supporting cinemas in difficulty
The only countries with which examples of co-production are rare are those whose local industries, and sometimes national support organizations, are still very strong, “like Korea, which has very well produced cinema and a very protectionist system†, explains Olivier Père. Because in fact, France also came to the aid of cinemas in collapse, for economic or sometimes political reasons.
This is obviously the case of Iran, whose most famous authors are often imprisoned in their own country, such as Mohammad Rasoulof or Jafar Panahi, whose Palme d’Or A simple accident was able to receive support from Arte (“in very specific conditions, without even seeing a scenario, because circulating it would have been too dangerous†, says Father). It is also that of Argentina, where Javier Milei’s atomization of the INCAA, the local equivalent of the CNC, created a breath of fresh air towards Europe.
Alejandro Arenas, producer at Films du Worso, was at the forefront of this phenomenon. “We work with Argentine producers who had to open an office in Spain to be able to continue working with their authors. Pablo Fendrik’s new film, a survival story which was to be shot in Patagonia with several partners already involved, was almost abandoned when the INCAA cut off funding, but we were able to resurrect it: it is now being shot in the Alps, and in French.â€
Respect filmmakers’ links with their own country
This raises other, more thorny questions: by playing its role as rescuer of foreign cinema, doesn’t the French ecosystem sometimes risk swallowing it up? France is not only the co-producer of the five Oscar nominees for best international film: it is also one of their best markets, if not the first. Sentimental value et L’Agent secret achieved income there comparable to that of their American career, and slightly below their income in their respective countries, although in the same order of magnitude.
SirÄt had 750,000 admissions here, compared to 450,000 in Spain. “The latest film by Alexandros Avranas, Quiet Life, which we produced with Films du Worso, was not even released in its own country, Greece… deplores Arenas. His observation is the same on symbolic recognition, whether through the press, festivals, ceremonies. “In France, Jonás Trueba had a retrospective at the Center Pompidou. In Spain, September without delay has had two selections for the Goyas… Consideration is growing, but precisely in the light of his international dimension, and therefore of what is happening for him in France….
Respecting filmmakers’ links with their own country is therefore a subject of vigilance, for example for Andrea Queralt and Mani Mortazavi, producers of SirÄt : “Aid imposes a certain quota of spending in the country that issues it, which can sometimes create regrettable situations, such as having to sacrifice important collaborators because they do not have the right nationality. We take care to avoid this.â€
A system that costs taxpayers nothing
Both extol the extremely virtuous nature of aid to world cinemas, referred to by its acronym ACM: “It must be remembered that it also depends on the French Institute, and that there is a different culture there than at the CNC. The project manager spent an hour with me on the phone yesterday to explain a decision: when commissioning the classic advance on receipts, it is generally done in two minutes.†But the vein is more and more demanding: “At the last commission, there were 58 projects, compared to 40 or 45 a few years ago. It has become very difficult to get the ACM.â€
Everyone we met agrees on one fact: the scenario of a Milei-style dismantling would be an absolute catastrophe for international cinema. Everyone also urged us to say, repeat, repeat that this system costs taxpayers nothing, creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and brings in more money for the French economy than the automobile or pharmaceutical industry. “The French ecosystem is the most powerful rocket in the world for the production of international cinema, because there is here an extremely structured arrangement of public authorities, financiers, producers, international sellers… summarizes producer Mani Mortazavi. “I say this without the slightest chauvinism: I’m not even French.â€
