France as author of world cinema: International co-production and the Fonds Sud, 1984–2012

Abstract

While the profound effect that metropolitan France has had on the contours of the global literary marketplace (or ‘littérature-monde’) has figured prominently in much recent scholarship, the similarly central role that Paris plays in the nebulous domain of world cinema remains ripe for scrutiny. The status of the Cannes Festival is well known as perhaps the single most powerful gatekeeper to a filmmaker’s international circulation, but the broader relationship between France’s administration of film culture and the international art-house circuit is not widely understood. This paper engages with competing definitions of ‘world cinema’ on both sides of the Atlantic and lays the groundwork for a historical inquiry into the Aide aux cinémas du monde, a production grant that the Centre national du cinéma established in 2012 to replace its long-running Fonds Sud, a fund for film projects originating in the southern hemisphere and beyond.