From the big screen to the small screen, the reopening of movie theaters, the advent of digital terrestrial television, economic liberalization and growth, the rise of the middle class, and the development of digital technology are multiplying opportunities for African production. All of these prospects point to a promising future for local production.
For the cinema, the crux of the matter remains financing, which has a considerable impact on the film industry as a whole and conditions artistic creation. The welfare state in the film industry in French-speaking Africa has been largely ineffective for years. Added to this is the decline in public aid from the French government and the disappearance of movie theaters in the 1990s. Financing a film project is therefore still complicated at present.
This delicate situation is pushing players in the industry to adapt, reinvent themselves, and redouble their inventiveness in order to find sources of funding. They are multiplying initiatives to support the development of production on the continent, aided by the rise of digital technology, which seems to offer new alternatives.
Public funds support production
Although resources are lacking and national and international subsidies are declining, numerous public initiatives continue to support film production.
International cooperation has historically supported production on the continent. The successor to the Fonds francophone de production audiovisuelle, the Fonds Image de la Francophonie, created in 1988, is a long-standing player in film financing practices in French-speaking countries in the South.
Implemented by the OIF, this fund has an annual budget of at least €900,000, divided equally between cinema and audiovisual production, enabling it to finance around 50 projects per year. Thanks to this production support mechanism, the Fonds Image de la Francophonie claims to have generated around 1,600 productions since its creation.
The CNC also supports production in southern countries, particularly on the African continent, through the Aide aux Cinémas du Monde (World Cinema Aid) program, a selective aid reserved for feature-length fiction, animation, or documentary projects intended for initial exploitation in movie theaters. Through this initiative, the CNC also focuses on co-production by facilitating partnerships between filmmakers and professionals from around the world.
In 2017, to encourage the emergence of young filmmakers, the CNC, in association with a network of partners, launched the first support fund dedicated to young creators in French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries and Haiti. The CNC, together with partners such as TV5Monde, France Télévisions, and Orange, co-finances and coordinates this fund, which is aimed at producers, actors, and directors to support film projects, audiovisual series, and web content.
Launched in 2011 by the Ivorian government, FONSIC provides public financial support to the entire film industry in order to promote the development of cinema in Côte d'Ivoire. In particular, it provides aid for film production with an initial budget of 500 million CFA francs. The films "Run" by Philippe Lacôte (2014) and "Bienvenue au Gondwana" by Mamane have also benefited from FONSIC support.
In Senegal, public support for local production is embodied by FOPICA. Since its launch in 2002, FOPICA has financed more than 60 projects. In particular, it supported the film Felicité by the famous director Alain Gomis (Fespaco Golden Stallion).
"Traditional" financing
Beyond the contribution of public authorities, French-speaking African production (television and cinema) is supported by television channels such as TV5Monde and private actors such as CANAL+. However, for the development of local production, Alexandre Rideau, director of Keewu Production, confides: "As long as local channels are unable to play the game, i.e., buy/pre-purchase local productions at a fair price, financing will remain a constraint on the development of the industry. If the only customers are pan-African television channels of French, French-speaking, Chinese, or other origins, this will not be enough to bring about real local production."
Other sources of financing included in the financial arrangements for production projects come from private advertisers or investors. This type of financing will become increasingly common as the quality of production continues to improve.
The methods of financing African cinema are evolving.
South-South film cooperation
There is a clear need to create networks, joint structures, and places for meeting and sharing in order to initiate synergies and cooperative relationships between members of the industry and governments.
Sarim Fassi Fihri, director general of the Moroccan Film Center, has ambitions to support production on the African continent. Beyond the structure he heads, the Director General is leading a project to create a new pan-African grant fund dedicated to the film industry. This fund will enable more co-production agreements between African countries and Morocco to be signed, with a view to accelerating production on the continent.
More recently, Côte d'Ivoire, through its Film Industry Support Fund (FONSIC), and Senegal, through its Film and Audiovisual Industry Promotion Fund (FOPICA), have played the cooperation card by participating, via the two funds, in the co-financing of the film "Atlantique" by Senegalese director Mati Diop. The film was in the running for the Palme d'Or at Cannes at the end of May. The two countries involved in this film project have relied on cooperation to bring the voice of African cinema to the international stage.
Alternative 2.0
While there are many avenues for "traditional" production financing (television channels, subsidies, sponsorship, VOD, etc.), the advent of digital technologies has significantly changed distribution, promotion, and production techniques. The advent of digital technologies has significantly changed distribution, promotion, and production techniques. Filmmakers are turning to the web to find new ways to finance their projects.
Crowdfunding sites are opening up new avenues for production financing. Although it does not compete with the "traditional" production financing model, crowdfunding, facilitated by the rise of digital technology, is becoming increasingly popular in the film industry in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2016, French-Malian director Toumani Sangaré launched an online fundraising campaign for his adventure film project "Nogochi."