According to a report in Le Monde, French Culture Minister Jean Jacques Aillagon believes television should play a central role in the financing of French film productions and wants to create aid funds to help the country’s regional centres foster film production. After hailing the health of the country’s film industry, both domestically and abroad, Minister Aillagon said economic difficulties were also evident in the independent sector and in film-related technical industries which were suffering from a growing culture of centralisation. To counter these difficulties, Minister Aillagon proposed the diversification of financing sources; funding assistance for film shoots in local areas; the maintenance of effective cinematographic diversity and the reinforcement of measures aimed at film exportation. In creating a series of aid funds for local collective productions, Minister Aillagon hopes to encourage diversity and local productions conducted ‘without logistical interference from the state’. Minister Aillagon hopes to reform the Society for Cinema and Audiovisual Funding (SOFICA) in order to finance further independent productions. Minister Aillagon also noted that television should continue to play a central role in the financing of film productions. New government policies, designed to encourage film production in France, are expected to come into action in 2004. For more information in French, CLICK HERE