Two powerful film bodies from France and Spain are meeting in San Sebastián this week
Two of the most powerful film bodies in Europe will be meeting at San Sebastián on Wednesday 25 September to plant the seeds for a filmmaking axis.
Marc Tessier, director of France's CNC, the largest state film funding body in Europe, will be leading a delegation of French producer to parley with members of Spain's influential producers' body, FAPAE.
The meeting takes place as both governments take stands on which way Europe's national film industries should go. But can the twain meet?
The French and Spanish government appear to differ, or think they differ, on so-called 'cultural exception' and which territories form their natural allies.
Marc Tessier has gone on record saying that he looks to Spain to form part of a central nucleus of European film powers driving an alternative industry to America's.
Yet for Miguel Angel Cortés, Spain's secretary of state for culture, Spain's 'principal film and TV asset' is Spanish-speaking America.
At the most recent meeting of the European Union's Council of Ministers responsible for audiovisual affairs, Spain backed a short-term, five-year prolongation of the so-called 'cultural exception' of film and TV.
But in the long term, says Cortés, 'the so-called cultural exception is contrary to the interests of the Spanish cinema', given Spain's export aims for Latin America, which could be damaged by protectionist barriers on both sides of the Atlantic.
'These types of barriers,' says Cortés, 'backed principally by France, are not only undesirable but impossible (to enforce), a point he'll put across at the next audiovisual Council of Ministers meeting in Ireland.
But the two powers find important common ground in co-productions. For Cortés, 'What we need are not barriers, but incentives.' For Tessier, France, Spain and Italy should 'harmonise our legislations, our production aid and force broadcasters to invest in cinema.
Spain has just ratified the Council of Europe's Co-Production Convention, which ushers in the possibility of Spain entering financial co-productions (with a minimum 15%) with producers from other countries which have ratified the agreement.
Wednesday's CNC/FAPAE San Sebastián summit should see producers pushing for co-productions to become more regular between the countries. Here the two European powers certainly meet.
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