10/12/2012 - France is once again an attractive shooting location for national and international films, thanks to a significant raise to the tax credit ceiling

French producers and their foreign counterparts who wish to shoot in France have received an early Christmas present, as the National Assembly has very significantly raised the ceiling for their tax credit (20 % of expenses incurred). For French works, it has gone from €1m to 4m while the ceiling for international tax credit has climbed from €4m to 10m. The deputies have also broadened eligible expenditure.

The Ficam (Federation of Film, Audiovisual, and Multimedia Industries) has congratulated itself on this decision intended to stop a trend of French films shooting abroad (40% of 2012 productions and up to 70% for features films with a budget of over €10m – read more) and to reinforce France’s attractiveness as a shooting location for international productions. At the moment, France only attracts 3% of international productions shooting in Europe, as other European countries offer much more advantageous tax incentives. It’s worth noting that €1 in tax credit causes €7 to be injected into the French economy, as well as the positive impact of such an incentive on employment and the health of studios such as the brand new Cité du Cinéma (read more).

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The news is however not so good for cinemas as VAT on admissions is to increase from 7% to 10% in 2014. This increase has scandalised all French film professional organisations as cinema would thus become the only cultural activity not to benefit from a reduced VAT rate (5%).

(Translated from French)