2023-10-07 15:00:54
FRANCE – Some fans of our popular French cinema still wonder where the 7th Company could have gone. We wonder where part of the funds from the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images, the famous CNC, could have gone, both times 700 million euros of its total budget over the period 2021-2022?
I wonder, because it seems possible that instead of serving the interests of cinema, the use that was made during this period of CNC funds is more akin to a scam between friends, in the opacity of implementation in this genre and without us knowing where the money really went.
Since July 2019, the CNC has been chaired by Dominique Boutonnat. Ex-film producer and personal friend of Patrick Sébastien and Emmanuel Macron, this gentleman was reappointed for three years in his position in July 2022, despite a record strongly contested by “the professionals of the profession” (as they say in this environment), and above all, an indictment for sexual assault which is a bit of a stain…
The CNC is placed under the authority of the Ministry of Culture. But its creation support fund, like its operating costs, are not taken from the budget of rue de Valois, and come from taxes levied in the sector as well as professional contributions.
The first of these taxes, created in 1948, concerns cinema admissions. It corresponds to 10.7% of the price of each entry (increased by 50% for pornographic works or works that incite violence). Thus, Hollywood films distributed and broadcast in France finance the CNC fund.
Television channels have also been subject to the tax since 1986 (tax extended to video in 1993), up to 2% of the sales price (10% for “hard” and violence), video on demand in 2003, and finally, Internet since 2007.
These different operators are subject to a tax proportional to their turnover, with differentiated rates depending on their use of the image and the VAT applicable to them.
The tax on television publishers and distributors is the one that brings in the most for the CNC: 532 million euros in 2013. It is followed by the tax on cinemas (130 million) and the video tax (nearly 26 million).
These taxes increased by 70% between 2002 and 2012, according to the Court of Auditors. And since 2008, a tax which levies Canal + more widely, as well as cable, satellite, Internet access providers and mobile telephone operators, has made it possible to further increase the CNC’s budget. In return, the State made significant levies on the proceeds of these taxes until 2013.
With a total amount of 322.4 million in 2013, these taxes added to the reimbursements of aid paid in the form of advances enabled the CNC to distribute a total of 783.47 million euros, including 322.4 million to the cinema, 285.4 million to the audiovisual sector (which partly overlaps with the cinema sector) and 124.38 million to transversal devices (notably video games).
Finally, the CNC invested 51.3 million to help with the digitalization of cinemas.
Note that in addition, the sector also benefits from public aid.
According to the Court of Auditors, tax support for this increased from 18.6 million euros in 2002 to 145 million euros in 2012.
The cinema sector also benefits from aid from local authorities (this amounted to 47 million euros in 2012, compared to 7 million ten years earlier) and indirect support from the State, including among others the intermittent workers of the show…
For the period 2021-2022, all this makes a total budget of more than 700 million euros per year.
However, during these two years, due to the Covid crisis, the funding provided by the CNC was marginal, if not non-existent, compared to previous years.
Hence this simple question: what happened to these two times 700 million?
Indeed, tell me if I’m wrong, but Mr. Boutonnat never returned this money…
In Macronie, scandals follow one another, such as that of the Marianne fund, whose investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Raynal, concluded that there were serious dysfunctions and probably led to the ousting of Marlène Schiappa from her position. ministry. And to the interventions that were, to say the least, surreal by Mohamed Sifaoui and Rudy Reichstadt during their hearings. This led me to question the use of public funds, suggesting to the finance committee an audit of Dilcrah funds.
This is why I am calling for a public inquiry into the CNC.
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