Tax Incentives Aren’t the Only Reason Why ‘The Substance,’ ‘Emilia Pérez’ and ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ Shot in France

Jacques Audiard’s musical thriller “Emilia Pérez,” Coralie Fargeat’s body horror “The Substance” and Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s epic adventure “The Count of Monte Cristo” have more in common than the fact that they’re directed by French filmmakers.

Despite being set in Mexico and Los Angeles, respectively, “Emilia Pérez” and “The Substance” both shot entirely in France, for the most part in studios in Paris.

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France has been able to attract, host and retain a wide range of local and international productions, primarily thanks to its locations and crews, even if its tax incentives aren’t as competitive as in other popular filming destinations in Europe, such as London and Prague.

At a panel discussion at the American French Film Festival in Los Angeles, “The Count of Monte Cristo” producer Dimitri Rassam; Jay Roewe, SVP of production planning and incentives at HBO Max and WBD; L.A.-based producer and filmmaker Jon Avnet; and Laurent Kleindienst, VP of strategy and development at Paris TSF Studios discussed the cost-effectiveness and creative advantages of filming in France.

“The Count of Monte Cristo,” a sprawling period movie adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ literary masterpiece, has been compared to “golden-era Hollywood epics” by Variety, but it was produced with a budget of roughly $50 million — about a third of what a U.S. blockbuster of a similar scale would cost.

“We made a movie for a fraction of what it would have cost elsewhere,” said Rassam, who previously produced the two-part saga “The Three Musketeers.” But the cost isn’t what determined the location of the shoot, Rassam said, because it would have been cheaper to film somewhere in Eastern Europe.

“We made that decision not because it was more cost effective, but because it was what was warranted to make those moviesbright, and we just felt like for a shoot of these lengths, we needed the actors to be immersed and to be as close as possible to the story,” said Rassam, who presented “Monte Cristo” on the closing night of the American French Film Festival on Sunday.

Ultimately, “The Count of Monte Cristo” shot in France for 70 days and the remaining seven days in Malta and Belgium at Lites Studios, which is believed to have the world’s most advanced water stage.

Rassam said this was an “illustration of the fact that when you look at France, you should look at it as a center of gravity of European cinema because whatever you don’t have in France, you can find close by in Europe.”

Meanwhile, Audiard opted to shoot “Emilia Pérez” entirely at the Bry-Sur-Marne Studios in France, where an authentic Mexican backdrop was built. In an interview with Variety in January 2023, Audiard said his decision was a creative one because he wanted to work with his regular crew and have more control over the space and light. The movie, which stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón, is being pushed into the awards season by Netflix, which is campaigning for it in major categories, and will represent France in the international feature race.

Fargeat wanted “The Substance” to have a different aesthetic than a typical L.A.-set movie and looked to create an alternative vision, so she shot it at TSF’s Epinay Studio outside of Paris with exteriors filmed in the French Riviera. The Mubi film stars Demi Moore as a recently fired TV star who uses a black market drug to create a younger version of herself, with dangerous side effects.

In terms of tax incentives, France offers a 30% tax rebate on qualifying expenses incurred in France, and up to 40% if visual effects are done locally and exceed €2 million ($2.18 million). The country has also been building more studios and sound stages as part of a government-backed investment plan called France 2030.

“Something like 50 sound stages are being built at the moment, including our facility, TSF Paris Backlot, which spreads out over 3.7 acres and reproduces the streets of Paris,” Kleindienst said. The recently-inaugurated backlot was budgeted at $107.6 million and has benefited from $15.8 million in public support as part of France 2030, which boasts a global envelop of $218 million to beef up production infrastructure.

“Just like L.A., it has become increasingly difficult for production to shoot inside the major capitals,” Kleindienst explained, “so backlots have become more and more important in terms of controlling your environment while still having a lot of freedom to shoot.”

France has also been at the forefront of creating a sustainable production infrastructure. “On a regular production, there’s between 10 and 15 tons of waste, and in our studios in France we’re going to recycle 98% of that. So every piece of wood, every piece of metal, is recycled,” Kleindienst said.

Roewe, whose team has shot several shows in France — including Olivier Assayas’ miniseries “Irma Vep” (for 100 days), as well as Daniel Goldfarb’s “Julia” (for 21 days) — said that “there are more options available than ever before with 120 incentives sitting out there, and as a result of those incentives, there’s infrastructure that have built up like never before.” Roewe and his teams can make “two, three or four different budgets” to determine where to shoot. And in the end, “it’s not about finding where it’s the cheapest to make something,” he said, “it’s where it’s most cost effective.”

The takeaway was the crew size, he said, because it was “probably a half to a third of what we would be doing on the film here.”

“On a project here, we would need a crew of 150 at a minimum, and we did the same thing with 50 to 75 people and we didn’t need the bigger machine. And also that’s how you do it in France,” Roewe explained, adding that “there’s also an incredible history of filmmaking in France which gives extra value to crews and artists working on productions.”

Avnet, a member of the DGA and WGA whose best known credits include “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Three Christs” starring Richard Gere and Peter Dinklage, said he’s heard studio execs compliment the shooting process in France. “We had a great experience. We had half the size of the crew, and we moved faster. Everybody loves it,” he said. Although he hasn’t himself shot movies in France, Avnet said many core members of his regular crew are French.

A larger number of indie movies are now shooting in studios as they aspire to create event films, and Avnet argued that since “there’s a little bit more idealism and artistic freedom” in the independent film world than in the studio system,” filmmakers and producers like himself are “looking for excitement, more than just the best financial situation.”

“If the crew cares about the film, that creates an environment where everybody feels it, enjoys it and I believe it comes up on screen,” he said.

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