2020 Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
Our need for analysis, hindsight, points of view, and therefore documentaries, continues to grow nowadays. Their usefulness is universal, all the more so today, when many crises are looming and when we need to invent a better future.
In 2019, we reached a record, with sixty-five very diverse documentary films getting CNC approval – the highest number in ten years. They represent 22% of French film production, as opposed to 11% ten years ago. And in 2019, a third of documentaries made for the cinema benefited from CNC selective aid for production, which is unprecedented! In theatres, they represent 21% of the offer of new films, as opposed to 13% ten years ago. On platforms, which are increasingly betting on a genre widely appreciated thanks to its powerful subject matters, they represent 12% of the titles available on SVOD platforms, i.e. almost two thousand five hundred titles, of which 35% are French.
French documentary creation is certainly one of the best in the world. This is why, after the creation of the Cinémathèque du documentaire under the leadership of Julie Bertuccelli in 2017, we want to strengthen our actions towards filmmakers, independent authors whose funding difficulties are likely to worsen in the months and years to come. The transposition of the AVMS directive into French law will require platforms to contribute to funding French and European creation and will be a strong lever to strengthen their funding and their exposure to these new broadcasters.
France loves documentaries, we help them to exist, to live, from their writing to their screening in theatres and festivals, particularly in Lussas, and naturally by way of their production. Public support via the CNC and French regions is actually the primary source of funding for the production of documentary films.
The CNC has always been there to support authors, to safeguard independence and creative freedom, in France and elsewhere. We have extended our solidarity fund for authors, created in April with the SACD and LaScam, in order to help them through this very complex period. We will continue to stand up for the independence of creation, on which our cultural sovereignty rests.
An excellent thirty-second edition of the États généraux du film documentaire to all!
Dominique Boutonnat
President of the CNC