France's CNC appoints head of attractiveness department to lure intl productions

France’s national film centre the CNC has appointed Daphné Lora to head up its ’Attractiveness Department’ also known internationally as ’Film France by CNC’ designed to draw in foreign productions to shoot in the country.

Department head Mathieu Ripka left the position back in October 2022 to pursue a production career and until now did not have a replacement. Named by CNC President Dominique Boutonnat, Lora will report to Vincent Florant, director of digital at the CNC when she officially takes on the new role on April 3.

The move is part of a general overhaul of the country’s central film organisation in an effort to transform France into a one-stop shop for production. Film France was previously an autonomous film commission bankrolled by the CNC until November 2021 when it was officially integrated into a new service – called the “service de l’attractivité” or “attractiveness department” – within the state film organisation.

The CNC has opted to keep its original moniker of Film France as it has been known to foreign producers, adapting it to “Film France by CNC.” The department’s aim is to promote France as a prime shooting location for all productions from feature films to TV, music and video games at an international level. Its main activities are international outreach and onsite co-ordination with local France-based line producers, technical crews and network of regional film commissions.

Lora has carved out a career connecting France to the rest of the world. She previously headed the Territories division of ’la French Tech’ designed to boost France’s start-up scene and make the country a prime location to launch and grow businesses. Lora started off working in Paris as a writing coordinator then literary director in the audiovisual fiction space with top French production companies including Marathon, Gaumont and Endemol. She pursued her career across the Atlantic at the Tribeca Film Institute then at the French Embassy as digital director of its Creative Lab program. Since 2018, Lora ran the New York branch of the attractiveness service for the Ile-de-France region (Paris and its environs) to cover the East Coast of the US and Canada and, a year later, took on a bigger role covering the cultural and creative industries sector on a more global level.

Lora will spearhead the CNC’s collective efforts to amp up initiatives that have already helped attract a bevy of blockbuster productions to the territory including John Wick 4 and Netflix’s upcoming Murder Mystery 2.

Also key to the surge in global production has been an increasingly strong presence of international streamers making both features and series in both French and English in addition to an appealing tax credit. The TRIP (Tax Rebate for International Production) offers a 30% rebate for eligible expenses and 40% if the French VFX expenses are more than €2M. In 2021, foreign productions spent €2.8bn shooting in France, 33% more than pre-pandemic 2019 levels and the CNC has yet to announce 2022 figures, but is hoping numbers will rise as it continues its courting efforts.

This article originally appeared on KFTV's sister site, Screendaily.