The "Conseil Régional" aids:
www.laregie-paca.com

Financial aid for short fiction films

This aid is for the benefit of all projects filmed in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region. Time spent filming in the region must be no less than 52% of the total filming time (except if the production company or author are domiciled in the region). A committee of professionals evaluates the project’s artistic quality. An association or a production company can produce the project.

Financial aid for short and medium-length documentaries

A production company must present the project.
Either the producer or the author must be domiciled in PACA, or the time spent filming in the region must represent 50% of the total filming time.

A project is only eligible if 40% of the finance is already secured and if the participation of a television broadcaster is confirmed. If the producer or author is not domiciled in PACA, 50 per cent of the time spent filming must take place in the region. The maximum aid limit is 54,000 €.

Aid for documentaries

A production company must present the project. Either the producer or author must be domiciled in PACA or the time spent filming in the region must represent 50% of the total filming time.

Aid for writing and research

This aid is for the benefit of a producer or scriptwriter proposing a project. For a television-film, a writing contract with a broadcaster must pre-exist the request. A reading committee allocates the aid in the form of a grant to the author after the decision. The maximum aid limit is 5500 € for writing grants and 15,000 € for research grants.

Aid for development

Aid is granted to the production company. It is intended to off-set charges for checking locations before making a film, canvassing broadcasters, co-producers… The production company pledges to present a progress report on the project within 9 months after the agreement is signed. The maximum aid limit is 5000 €.

Selection and project evaluation

Reading committees made up of national and regional professionals are responsible for examining the artistic quality of the projects, as well as their suitability with regard to a grid of specific criteria. These committees are in an advisory capacity and put forward projects judged eligible by the elected regional representatives.

There are four committees: aid for short fiction films, aid for short documentaries, aid for feature films, aid for writing and development.

Projects can only be submitted once, unless the reading committee requests otherwise. The participation of the PACA region in the financial arrangements of a project must be considered as complementing finance for production and not as the deciding factor.

When the permanent committee of the Conseil Régional will have voted on the project selected by the reading committee, the production company benefiting from aid agrees to sign a contract stipulating rights and obligations of the signatories.

Cinema tax credit

On November 14, the National Assembly adopted an amendment to the 2004 French Fiscal Law, introducing a tax credit system for the cinema.

The cinema tax credit is a simple mechanism: a tax reduction for companies or a cheque from the Tax Department if the company does not make enough profit to be taxed on. All approved film producers who spend the majority of their filming and post-production budget in France can obtain this advantage. The tax credit corresponds to 20% of these expenses.

The amount of the fiscal gain will be limited to 500,000 € per film. Animation feature films will benefit from a maximum limit of 750,000 €, justified by the large proportion of technical expenses in their budgets.

The tax credit can be transferred, which enables the producer to obtain an advance from his bank so that it can be integrated in the film's initial finance plan.
This measure is an important innovation in the political support for cinema. It is in line with the Culture and Communication Ministry’s aim to encourage the relocation to France of a number of important film productions and technical services that favour the maintenance of thousands of jobs for technicians and artists.

In 2002, the number of weeks spent filming by foreign companies actually increased by 18% in comparison to 2001, and the trend appears to have continued in 2003.

Because of its simplicity, automatic implementation and forseeability, the measure (subject to adoption by the Senate) will undoubtedly be a significant help to the independent cinematographic production industry at a time of great uncertainty.