By Liza Foreman
SAN SEBASTIAN – Being the top dog at UniFrance, the French audiovisual export body, is not only a key job in the film industry, but also a good viewpoint from which to observe trends in the business.
For Daniela Elstner, the organization’s Executive Director, one of her key observations, currently, is the rise of French coproductions.
And nowhere is that better on display than at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival. The 72nd edition of Spain’s most important film festival runs through Saturday.
France has a long list of homegrown films playing across a half dozen sections here, as well as boasting the opening night film, Audrey Diwan’s drama ‘Emmanuelle.’
Meanwhile, the number of coproductions it is presenting at the festival outpaces fully Gallic features. There are no less than 20 French coproductions unspooling this week.
“It is interesting how European countries are getting more into coproductions again. France has a lot of possibilities to go into coproduction,” Elstner told TVF. She points to Indian director Payal Kapadia. “It’s interesting how these films from all over the world become European that aren’t European.”
Three French co-productions complete the French presence in the SSIFF competition, alongside the French titles ‘Emmanuelle’, Costa-Gavras’s ‘Last Breath’ and Francois Ozon’s ‘When Fall is Coming.’
The French collaborations in competition are Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘Serpent’s Path,’ which is a French-language remake of the director’s masterpiece of the same name from 1998; ‘The Wailing’ a Spanish-language horror/mystery by Pedro Martín-Calero; and the graphic bullfighting documentary ‘Afternoon of Loneliness’ (‘Tardes de soledad’) by Albert Serra.
In the Perlak section for films that have premiered at other festivals, French coproductions include ‘All We Imagine as Light’ by Payal Kapadia. The Cannes Grand Prix winner is a France-India-Netherlands-Luxembourg coproduction. It tells the story of two nurses in Mumbai who embark on a problem-solving road trip. It was the first Indian feature to compete in Cannes since 1994.
Other French co-production titles at SSIFF include ‘Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs’ by Tom Volf and Yannis Dimolitsas; ‘Bird’ by Andrea Arnold; and ‘I’m Still Here’ by Brazilian director Walter Salles.
The list continues with this year’s Cannes competition title ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ by Mohammad Rasoulof. The Persian-language drama is a Germany-France-Iran coproduction. Another Cannes competition film, ‘Parthenope’ by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino, is also a French coproduction.
“France has a lot going on in terms of co-productions. Especially in San Sebastian where you have so many coproductions on display,” said Elstner.
In the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section for experimental films, coprods include the Japanese ice-skating drama ‘My Sunshine’ by Hiroshi Okuyama. The film played in Un Certain Regard in Cannes.
Also unspooling in this section, ‘To a Land Unknown’ by Mahdi Fleifel, is a minority-French co-production, as is ‘Pepe’ by Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias; ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ by Johan Grimonprez; and ‘Super Happy Forever’ by Kohei Igarashi.
And it’s not just in San Sebastian.
Of the 92 films submitted by different countries for last year’s Best International Film Oscar, 25 were French productions or coproductions, and five were majority-French coproductions.
The CNC’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde fund, dedicated to international coproductions, has played its part in these developments. As a partnership between the CNC and the Institut Francais, the fund supports international co-production between France and all countries of the world.
“It promotes the cultural diversity of cinematographic works, encourages the emergence and consolidation of foreign talent, artistic and technical collaboration with the French sector and its attractiveness,” as per the CNC website.
France is actively engaging with its coproduction partners in other ways too.
In January, the CNC hosted ‘From Rome to Paris – Italian Cinema Meeting,’ bringing together French and Italian producers and filmmakers.
Seven Italian films in post-production were presented to potential French partners, including ‘Family Matters’ by Simone Godano and ‘The Life Apart’ by Marco Tullio Giordana.
According to figures released by the CNC, in 2023 the number of coproductions returned to pre-Covid levels: 120 coproductions made with 38 territories. The average for 2017 to 2019 was 119 co-productions.
The CNC reported there were 298 French majority and minority films made in 2023, up from 287 in 2022.
Overall investment in film production in France rose by 13.6% in 2023 to $1.45B (€1.34B), it said.
The CNC oversees funding and support schemes across the entire cinema chain in France.
