After two virtual editions due to the pandemic, the 28th Les Rendez Vous returned to Biarritz (September 4-8), with an offer of more than 1,000 productions, of which half were novelties. The market counted more than 250 buyers from the five continents, including broadcasters, VOD platforms and other companies, while the participation of 62 distribution companies resumed the good figures of their best years and that indicated, without any doubt, the desire to come back to face-to-face contacts between the executive of the audiovisual industry.
In this 2022 edition, the market focused on the genres of documentaries and fiction, highlighting the premiere of an episode of the ambitious historical miniseries Diane de Poitiers, directed by Josée Dayan and starring Isabelle Adjani, four-part series, produced by Passion Films and sold internationally by France TV Distribution.
In this edition, Unifrance also launched its new online viewing platform for French productions, Unifrance Screeningroom. A platform that served a total of 4,200 at the 130 viewing stations installed by the organization at the market headquarters, equipped with high-resolution monitors and HiFi headphones.
Frech fiction as the protagonist
This edition of Rendez Vous has once again served as a privileged space to present the classical annual report on French exports. Sharing the production difficulties during the pandemic with the rest of the world industry, the French audiovisual sector achieved the best global results in its history, standing at around €376 million. An especially positive figure, not only due to the fact that it exceeds the 2020 figures by 6%, but also if we compare it with the numbers of 10 years ago when it was slightly above €242 million.
Historic results
First, global rights, led by the large OTTs, accounted for more than a fifth of these exports, following the trend of recent years, with the AVODs gaining prominence.
The second has been the record of international pre-sales, especially in fiction content, which grew by more than 30% compared to the previous year, and that Western Europe -especially Germany, the UK and Italy- and North America have had as main customers. This is without forgetting the export growth in other regions, such as Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
And the third has been the contributions in French co-productions, which exceeded their monetary value by more than 10% and the hours produced by more than 25%, to exceed 1,500. Animations, a genre that continues to be at the forefront of French exports, has the participation of other countries -specifically 18- in the financing of more than 80% of the volume of its productions, and stands as the third country in terms of world production, only behind the USA and Japan.
As for for prospections, the return of international filming, thinking especially of documentaries, and the recovery in the acquisition side, the animation sector is joined by two factors that go in different directions but that will add to the amount of business: A growing competitiveness between the acquisitions of global and territorialized rights, and the emergence of the FAST channels which, boosted by large players and generally thematic in nature, are going to offer new business possibilities to catalog collections of the distributors. To this will be added the impact of the new obligations of international OTT platforms, in terms of programming and investment in new French productions, derived from the application of the European Directive on Audiovisual Communication Services.
