UPDATED: France’s controversial 15- to 17-month streaming window for feature films needs to be shortened, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said at an international news conference at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
However, a reduction in the TVOD window could be considered so that feature films will be available for the second transactional VOD window, three months after their theatrical release and not for the current four-month gap.
Abdul Malak responded to a question about France’s recently revised media window rules and whether they would need to be updated again due to pressure from US studios and global platforms, notably Disney and Netflix.
According to the current chronology, most global platforms, including Disney and Amazon, are subject to a 17-month hiatus between a feature film’s theatrical and online release, while Netflix is subject to a 15-month time-lag in return for additional investment in local feature films. Before the new rules, the window was 36 months.
“Yes, I think the whole chronology should be shorter, but we have to go step by step and find a match between all the segments [of the film and TV industry] who are worried,” said Abdul Malak.
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“We have to preserve the French peculiarities. Because it’s not just about the films, but also about the presence of our theaters in all these areas. It’s about social life. It’s also about funding,” she added.
The new law on media chronology introduced in February 2022 should have a term of three years. However, it included an annual review clause, set for February 2023.
“We have decided to open talks to change it again faster than originally planned. We started these discussions in October and we are still in this process because the government plays more of a mediating role between all parties. There must be an agreement between them. “It’s not us who decide what happens,” she said.
A ministerial adviser announced that a reduction in the TVoD window was under discussion and that there was a “very good chance” that an agreement would be reached by June.
Adbul Malak is in Cannes this year to speak about the launch of the $350 million French capacity-building initiative “Grand Fabrique de L’Image” which will involve the renovation or creation of 11 studio projects, 12 animation studios, six video game studios and supports five special effects studios and post-production companies, as well as 34 training facilities across the country.
“It is part of our major investment plan called France 2030 and consists of two parts. Part is supporting studios and part is developing the training schools and new ways to train new talent,” she said.
“It’s industrial on the one hand, because it has a huge economic impact on all these areas in France, because we know that when we’re filming, one euro spent on filming means 7.6 euros in economic impact for the area around hotels, restaurants, workplaces and local jobs means. She said. “But it’s also cultural because it will renew creativity through training.”
Abdul Malak’s presence at the festival comes at a politically tense time for President Emmanuel Macron and his government, led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, which is sticking with unpopular pension reforms that raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
During the festival, demonstrations around the Palais des Festivals in Cannes and along the Croisette have been banned, but unions are planning a protest outside the scope of the ban for Sunday, while the energy workers’ union threatened to shut off electricity at the festival, but it didn’t happened far.
Asked about the backlash on pension reforms the government has faced in recent weeks, Abdul Malak admitted there was much “anger and concern” expressed.
She defended the reforms, saying they would future-proof France’s welfare system as the country’s population ages.
“There is confusion between different issues. So if you are against pension reform, then you will start to be against everything the government is doing without distinguishing between the issues,” she said.
“This reform will help us fund our social model and all of our public services, including education, health, culture and everything,” she continued. “If you look at what age people in other countries retire, you see that in France we are still at 62 years old. And we will not be 67 or 65 like in other countries.”
Abdul Malak pointed out that there is currently a lack of a “shared collective consciousness” in France, a trend she says was already occurring before the pension reform debate during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In times of crisis, you get the feeling that each category wants to defend its own interests,” she said
She suggested that unions should be more concerned at the moment with the rise of far-right movements around the world.
“If we go back to the emergence of Cannes during Fascism. We are now in a moment where the extreme right is on the rise in Europe, very strong in France and also in the US,” she said.
“I would be happy if the unions and all their friends support us in the fight against the extreme right,” she said. “I think our common enemy should be the far right and we shouldn’t threaten a festival to turn off the power or jeopardize our culture to say no to the far right ideas.”