Dinner conference in Paris: Provence’s cinema success

An event organised in partnership with the Les Marseillais de Paris association

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, around five dozen people gathered at the we are club in Paris to celebrate the film industry in Provence. This dinner conference was organised by Provence Promotion in partnership with the Les Marseillais de Paris association, and it was an opportunity for Olivier Marchetti (President and Founder of Provence Studios in Martigues), Henri Deneubourg (Head of Productions at Netflix France), and Vincent Meslet (Managing Director of Newen France) to share their visions of the territory and discuss their film projects in Provence. The dinner was part of Provence Promotion’s collective influence programme to raise the profile of the Aix-Marseille area both in France and around the world.

Aix-Marseille-Provence, the historic birthplace of the cinema, has a thriving modern film industry and the future is even brighter as French and international producers flock to the South of France for their projects. Supported by the France 2030 pubic investment plan, Provence is positioning itself as the major hub for film production in the Mediterranean basin.

Provence Promotion, which has been supporting the growth of the audiovisual, animation, video game, and special effects sectors for more than 15 years, organised the evening dedicated to the film industry at the private we are club, which was founded in 2019 by Eric Newton as a networking hub for the cultural and creative industries sector in Paris. 

Developments and prospects for the film and audiovisual sector in Aix-Marseille

The Aix-Marseille-Provence metro area is France’s 2nd-largest filming location and in 2023, it hosted nearly 430 French and international productions representing almost 2180 days of filming and photography both at outdoor locations and in studios. Nicolas Regriny, Director of Territorial Attractiveness & European and International Relations at the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, noted the current economic impact of the film industry is estimated at nearly €90 million annually and creates more than 4300 direct local jobs while employing 16 300 local actors and extras.

Two film industry projects set in Aix-Marseille – Marseille en Grand and the Grande Fabrique de l’Image – won a French national funding competition and the unprecedented investments they will receive will provide even more best-in-class production and filming facilities. The talent pool, which is a key factor in attracting film productions to Provence, is also being expanded thanks to a local schools and new training centres such as Provence Campus, which promotes the audiovisual industry as a genuine vector for inclusion. The CNC national center for the cinema and animated image has also launched CinéFabrique Marseille, a three-year film school offering free initial training leading to a diploma.

New opportunities in Provence for producers and investors

Provence Studios, which was founded in 2019 in Martigues, is a major success story for the territory and the production facility continues to expand. “We are planning to extend our complex in Martigues and open a new site in Marseille in the former Saint-Louis sugar factory, which represents an investment of almost €30 million. For special effects, we have created the Next Stage studio, an immersive facility with 350 square metres of vertical LED screens that enable a convergence of cinema, digital technology, and animation,” explained Olivier Marchetti, the founder of Provence Studios.

One of the reasons why the film industry is so vibrant in Provence is it has long been the site where France’s most popular soap opera, Plus belle la vie, has been produced by Newen Studio at the Pôle Médias Belle de Mai in Marseille. This massive production, which has been going on for almost two decades, developed both the film infrastructure and talent pool in Aix-Marseille, helping to lay the groundwork for the rapid growth the sector is experiencing today.

According to Vincent Meslet, the Managing Director of Newen France, which is a subsidiary of the TF1 Group, Europe’s leading audiovisual and film production and distribution company, Marseille was chosen as the production site for Plus belle la vie in 2004 for a number of reasons: the sunshine, the sea, the magnificent natural scenery, the urban atmosphere, and the city’s evocative power in the French imagination. Vincent Meselt added that over his years in Marseille, he has observed the area’s positive transformations in terms of urban development, transport options, and economic activities.

Netflix has also placed its bets on the city of Marseille, filming significant series in the city, such as Marseille in 2016 and then Pax Massilia and Tapie in 2023. The latter series won Best International Series at the British Bafta TV Awards.

“Marseille is an ideal city for filmmaking, with an exceptional climate that limits the risks of bad weather on location. The people of this city are engaging and talented. We’ve recently launched a rap show called Nouvelle École, which is shot here with young people from the Marseille scene,” says Henri Deneubourg, Head of Productions at Netflix France, who noted a particular appreciation for the Next Stage studio at Provence Studios, which is also popular with American producers. 

These testimonials enabled participants to discover the growing importance of the film and audiovisual industry in Provence, and to share information about it within their business networks.

While the global market is robust, with an average growth forecast of 5.3% for the next few years, audiovisual production in France is expected to accelerate even faster due to the SMAD programme that encourages French film and television creation. As a result, Aix-Marseille-Provence is poised to welcome even more productions in the coming years.