Jacques-Remy Girerd's The Prophecy of the Frogs, another film that is being made at Folimage with CNC assistance. © and courtesy of Folimage.

In order to encourage production, the heads of the Cultural and Territorial Affairs department have also contributed their support to two projects which have by now proven their viability. The Center for First Works (CPO) is thus managed jointly by the CNC and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, via CFT Gobelins' School of the Image. They welcome projects from young artists who want to use animation techniques to make short films. Once the preliminary estimate of the cost of the project is accepted, the production is supervised by someone from the school, who serves as the director of production, as well as technical advisor.

The Artist in Residence program, organized by the Folimage animation studio located in Valence, aims at European filmmakers. Each year it allows two people to be welcomed under the best conditions (living expenses and a salary) for a residency of six months maximum, in order to direct a personal project. While French animators have been excluded from this program up until now, that provision will expire after the year 2000.

The newly opened College of La Poudriere, like the studio, enjoys some financing from CPO, while other measures are being studied to support writing and multimedia.

The Little Screen
For series, grants for television productions of all sorts are managed by the Support Accounts for the Audiovisual Industry (COSIP). Created in 1986, it is fed by a tax imposed on subscriptions and advertising income from private broadcast channels, and from the tax paid by every television owner which supports the public channels. COSIP's capital funds are divided in three ways: automatic financial aid, advances on automatic aid, and selective financial aid. Automatic aid concerns producers who already have more than five hours of their productions distributed on French television. The amount of funding they receive depends on the length of their current production and the cost per minute of the project. The financial aid may be used for completing their current project, or for preparing a new project, which must be done within two years.

Advances on automatic financial aid apply to producers who do not already benefit from grants -- during a first production, for example. Such advances must be repaid up to 50%.

Juried grants for a production less than five hours, a television special or a short series are given by a committee of ten members selected from professionals, television representatives and concerned authorities. Such grants are consequently reserved for new enterprises or those with a small volume of production. But at the same time, the production cannot be controlled by a company which has already received a grant, or a television station.

In addition, the internal commission of CNC also grants funds to pilots, in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $30,000.