Chronicles of the pandemic - France

With the return of the freedom to leave home and travel, to go to restaurants and schools, France could not miss the push to resume the many film sets that were suspended due to the pandemic. It was the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, who announced today the creation of a compensation fund of 50 million euros, in agreement with the National Cinema Center (CNC): "to start again with the shooting - explained Riester on France Info radio - producers must be protected ".
    And it was the producers, in fact, who asked for the release of one-off funds. The government made the decision immediately and the compensation will be effective from June 1.
    Insurances do not participate in the rescue operation for culture, as was initially announced: "we can also regret - said the minister - but insurers today cannot or do not want to, even if we have sought solutions with them , reassure the risk-Covid ". The fund will be active until the end of 2020 and will cover the costs deriving from the blockage of the film sets, which in some cases have been definitive, following isolated cases of positivity. The state subsidy must not, on the other hand, serve to cover the losses linked to the past or, possibly, future lockdown in the event of a second epidemic wave.
    In concrete terms, the fund must allow the risk to be covered up to 20% of the cost of the film whose production has stalled, up to a ceiling of 1.2 million euros. To overcome this ceiling, a possible involvement of the regions, the European Union and insurers is envisaged.