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Rivaled by London, Prague and Budapest when it comes to luring Hollywood shoots, France is getting ready to sharpen its competitive edge with a game-changing reform to its tax incentive for international productions (TRIP).
Following an intensive lobbying push orchestrated by French and American players -- including Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Paramount Skydance CEO and chairman David Ellison -- the government and parliament have approved the inclusion of below-the-line costs in the tax rebate for international movies and TV series. Under the reform, expenses such as the salaries of non-European actors and hotel stays will qualify for the 30% rebate (that goes up to 40% for movies with more than €2 million ($2.3 million) spent on French VFX work). The tax credit is capped at €30 million ($35 million) per project.
Pending final clearance from the European Commission, the measure is expected to come into force within weeks.
The fourth season of "The White Lotus," which begins filming soon at the posh Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez, may miss out on the enhanced incentive by a hair. Still, the hit show is a rare example of a production able to choose France for creative reasons alone, regardless of fiscal considerations.
Speaking this week at the Paris Images showcase, Gaëtan Bruel, president of the National Film Board (CNC), said the changes are "indispensable" if France is to compete for big-budget shoots at a fragile moment for Hollywood, as a "weakened industry" has driven a drop in "global production volumes."
Bruel, who spent a week in Los Angeles last fall during the American French Film Festival meeting with studio executives and producers, later reported to the Ministry of Finance that the country's appeal as a shooting destination had reached a low ebb and was no longer factoring into decisions on most major international projects. Indeed, the number of TRIP-approved productions dropped to 55 in 2024, compared with 100 in 2022.
"This reinforcement therefore corrects a loss of competitiveness with our neighbors and puts us back in the game," Bruel said. "Soon we will be able to reclaim our place among the champions of hosting ambitious shoots and large-scale projects, generating significant economic benefits -- from hotel nights to revenue for artisans and merchants, and, of course, jobs."
Beyond pressure from domestic industry players, Sarandos and Ellison also played a decisive role, separately, in persuading French President Emmanuel Macron of the need to expand the rebate to cover actors' salaries. Ellison raised the issue last month while in Paris to rally support for his hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Sarandos, for his part, discussed it with Macron during the eighth edition of Choose France, the investment-focused summit held in May 2024.
Macron, who has overseen hundreds of millions of euros in spending on infrastructure upgrades, studio expansion and training programs for both local and international productions as part of his France 2030 plan, "realized that those efforts would be in vain if the incentive itself wasn't modernized," according to an industry source. "Nowhere else have we doubled production capacity in five years, yet the feeling was that France 2030 would have been for nothing without an improved rebate."
Over the past decade, the arrival of Netflix and other streamers has reshaped the French film and TV landscape, triggering a surge in large-scale productions - financed through mandatory local-content investment obligations -- and doubling annual production spending from €1.5 billion to €3 billion. "The collaboration has paid off," Bruel said, pointing to high-profile series such as "Emily in Paris," "Franklin" and "The New Look," which have "served as a calling card for French crews" by combining "American expectations for production value with the technical excellence, versatility and collective intelligence of local teams."
But the sector now faces a "period of turbulence," Bruel added, citing "the contraction of the global market and intensifying international competition." Against that backdrop, extending eligibility to actors' salaries will be crucial not only to draw foreign shoots, but also to support the broader ecosystem and economy, he argued.
