Daniela Elstner, Executive Director of Unifrance
After an outstanding participation in Kidscreen Summit and Series Mania, Unifrance, the institute that covers French audiovisuals, returns to MIPTV with a large umbrella stand welcoming no less than 45 of its member saler companies.
Daniela Elstner, Executive Director of Unifrance, talked with Prensario, where the executive explained the first months of the year for the organization: ‘In 2023, the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris were back for the first time in their pre-Covid configuration, with a reinforced audiovisual component. 62 audiovisual distributors and 112 audiovisual buyers from 27 countries attended the market. This was undoubtedly a good prelude to the good year that the French audiovisual industry is having’.
Last month, Unifrance renewed its actions at Series Mania as well as around its ‘industry’ section, the Series Mania Forum. Here, the company partnered with the Forum to organize the Welcome Drinks, the professional meeting’s opening cocktail reception. In addition, Unifrance supported the launch of French series on the international market by organizing the “Coming Next from France” and other actions. ‘This was the opportunity for five distributor/producer/directorteams where they presented their series to an exclusive panel of foreign buyers’, explained Elstner.
It is a special year for Unifrance and for the audiovisual in France, cause programs export is ‘on the rise’, according to Elstner. The figures from the latest study conducted by the CNC and Unifrance showed increasing activity. In fact, exports of French audiovisual programs in 2021 (sales, pre-sales, and co-production contributions) reached a new record with a total of €375.9 million (+6% compared to 2020).
In November 2022, Unifrance also published its first annual report focused on the influence of French audiovisual production in five major territories: Germany, Spain, the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Taking into account the specific nature of these five audiovisual landscapes and the overall range of programs offered to audiences on small screens, the presence of French works was examined and detailed using data provided by Glance – Médiamétrie.
Focus on docs and animation and fiction
The organization has been pushing these genres strongly. Just in 2021, international sales of French drama recorded a historic increase of 21.8% to €57.3m, representing 30.8% of total sales. Even, pre-sales are experiencing a very strong increase, x2.4 compared to 2020. Some examples are: Women at War (Les Combattantes), winner of the 2022 Unifrance Export Awards; The 2 other nominees The Rope (Wild Bunch TV) and About Sasha (France tv distribution); also in another genre, Derby Girl, a fiction launched on France tv slash now in its 2nd season which is very successful in Germany
Meanwhile, on the documentary side sales, in 2021 the genre amounted to €36,8m. One of the trends that emerged in 2022 and is being confirmed is the serialization of documentaries. Some examples: Moochie – who killed Jill Halliburton? distributed by Terranoa; Top of the Rocksdistributed by Terranoa; Air Cocaine distributed by STUDIOCANAL; MH370 distributed by Federation Studios; or Magellan’s Extraordinary Odissey distributed by CLPB Rights
On the another hand, animation remains the leading export genre in sales volume with €60,8m sales. Some sales successes: the nominees of the 2022 Unifrance TV Export Awards, Where’s Chicky? distributed by Xilam Animation – Winner of the 2022 Award; Anna & Friends distributed by Superights; Hello Kitty: Super Style! distributed by Kids First Distribution.
In the coming months, Unifrance will also be present at the major audiovisual events including Annecy Festival/MIFA, Sunny Side of the Doc, Natpe Budapest, and is already actively working on the 2023 Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Biarritz.
