France's Film Agency Turns 80 With a Warning About Its Future
France's film agency, the CNC, spent three days in Paris marking its 80th birthday. The celebrations ran from 26 to 28 October at the Cinémathèque française, the country's film archive and museum, and drew industry leaders to talk about the body's past and its future, Variety reported.
The CNC, short for the National Centre of Cinema and the Moving Image, is the state body that supports French film and television production. Its president, Gaëtan Bruel, took the job last year. At the event he warned against attempts to dismantle the French funding model. He also said the sector is going through one of the deepest crises since the invention of cinema, on a global scale.
The strongest praise came from Thierry Frémaux, the chief of the Cannes Film Festival. In an onstage conversation with film historian Antoine de Baecque, Frémaux said French money, the CNC and French professionals are "absolutely everywhere" in world cinema. He also said many countries are now building film-restoration programmes on the French model. Restoration means repairing and digitally cleaning up old films so they can be shown again.
The debate has a political edge. Variety reported that a budget proposal unveiled earlier in October by the far-right Rassemblement National set out plans to strip down the National Film Board, move public broadcasting into private hands and cut its funding. The party's plans are a proposal, and nothing has been enacted.
Bruel also looked at the streaming services, the online platforms that show films and series on demand. He said they are finding their own weak spots, faced with competition from YouTube, and are now seeking closer ties with traditional broadcasters. Those are the TV channels that have long been the main buyers of French films.
What makes the anniversary notable is the mix of the two messages. Leaders praised a system that has spread abroad, while the people running it said it faces pressure at home and from the outside. The event closed on 28 October, and the CNC's next chapter will be shaped by the budget and political debates still to come.
