French Cinema Cultural Policy since the 1940s : A National and Transnational Issue Chapitre d’ouvrage - Octobre 2025

This article traces the contours and historical evolution of a specific model of relations between the public authorities and the cinema in France. If the interest of the public authorities in the cinema dates back to the end of the 1920s and was affirmed in the immediate pre-war period and during the Occupation, it is after the Liberation that the basis of an original system was constituted, in particular with the creation in 1946 of the Centre national de la cinématographie (CNC). Moreover, in 1946, France signed with Italy the first European intergovernmental agreement setting up the outline of an official status for film co-production, intended to pool the productive forces of the two countries, in particular to face the threat of an American hegemony. This status was confirmed and detailed by the agreement of 19 October 1949, which served as a model for equivalent agreements signed between other European countries.