Written by on Sep 24, 2012. Posted in On Location

Luc Besson opens Cité du Cinéma studio complex outside Paris

French filmmaker Luc Besson has officially opened his new Cité du Cinéma studio complex on the outskirts of Paris. The EUR170 million facility is built on the site of a former power station in Seine-Saint-Denis, a working-class district of the French capital.

Filmmakers can access nine sound stages, office space, workshops and a film school, all of which spans nearly 65,000 square metres. It’s the largest studio complex ever built in France and could help the country compete more effectively with the UK and Eastern Europe.

The attractiveness of Cité du Cinéma ... is indisputable on a technical level.

Patrick Lamassoure, Film France

Patrick Lamassoure is Managing Director of Film France: “The attractiveness of Cité du Cinéma, which is indisputable on a technical level, will be weighed down by the fact that our financial attractiveness for very large budgets is now lower than that of our neighbours.”

Locals have already dubbed the new complex Hollywood-sur-Seine, but the French Government is facing renewed calls to improve France’s national filming tax incentive. The current 20% figure matches what’s available in the UK, but its low per-production cap of EUR4 million is much more limiting.