Embrace

The twin triumphs of Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” at Cannes and Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” at Venice made 2025 a banner year for international auteurs embracing the French film showbiz ecosystem — though that’s hardly surprising for a production partner fluent in every language of cinema.

“You make electric cars with China, and films with France,” quips producer Charles Gillibert. “We have always had a universalist framework that supports not just French artists, but filmmakers from around the world, all of them benefiting from a self-sustaining system that uses investment obligations and festivals to sustain creativity.”

As president of Les Films du Losange and a producer of recent titles like Bi Gan’s “Resurrection” and Kristen Stewart’s “The Chronology of Water,” Gillibert has been instrumental in weaving global voices into what he calls his country’s “strong cinematic industrial fabric.”

Jarmusch provides a key example. In search of a European partner for a story spanning the Atlantic, he turned to Gillibert’s CG Cinema to refine the film’s creative, legal and administrative framework, to secure financing through France’s international tax credit, and to oversee a cross-border shoot. Following Gillibert’s advice, the production shifted its middle chapter from London to Dublin — a move that enriched the film’s themes and allowed a crew of Jarmusch regulars and French technicians to transition seamlessly between segments in Dublin and Paris.

“That’s what it means to imagine a film together,” says Gillibert, noting Jarmusch’s desire to keep working in France. “It shows that our work mattered, that he’s following threads opened up by his previous film. That he wants to explore them further here is both fortunate and exciting.”

And Jarmusch is far from alone. This year, a striking 27 submissions for the international feature film Oscar race from other countries are French co-productions — from Norway’s “Sentimental Value” to South Korea’s “No Other Choice” to Spain’s “Sirat.”

Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prize winning “Sentimental Value” even turns this phenomenon into its subject, following a Norwegian auteur who rekindles his creative spark while attending a French film festival — with scenes shot on location at the Deauville Festival itself.

MK2 Films managing director Fionnuala Jamison describes the process as a “virtuous cycle.” International auteurs leverage Cannes exposure to bolster French box office returns and forge relationships with local distributors and sales companies. Those connections, in turn, unlock CNC funds and broadcaster pre-buys aligned with the festival’s tastes, creating a self-reinforcing ecosystem that nurtures global voices.

“What premieres at Cannes, what resonates at the French box office, and what public funders back all go hand in hand,” says Jamison. “There are political and ethical dimensions, sure. But fundamentally, it comes down to the French audience and its long tradition of openness. Certain films just work here.”

Last year, MK2 quietly joined a top-secret project from Panahi, teaming up with distributor Memento and Les Films Pelléas to finance a clandestinely shot thriller. In many ways, the dissident auteur already embodied the full promise of the French system: he burst onto the world stage with Cannes’ Camera d’Or and leveraged local partnerships — most notably with Paris-based Celluloid Dreams — to navigate government reprisals and build one of world cinema’s most celebrated careers.

“Everything, from how Panahi’s films were sold abroad to how they reached major festivals, happened through French companies,” says Les Films Pelléas founder Philippe Martin. For him, embracing this year’s Palme d’Or winner as France’s Oscar submission — giving Panahi a platform that had long been out of reach — felt like a natural next step for an ecosystem that has consistently embraced global auteurs.

“No other country supports so many other nations’ cinemas with such generosity and intelligence,” Martin adds.