(Montreal) Audiences interested in Quebec films and shows were spoiled for choice during a bountiful autumn, but this beautiful showcase hides a reality consisting of a lack of funding and a dilution of Quebecois content in the offering of foreign platforms .
Posted at 10:26 am.
Jean Philippe Angers The Canadian Press
The word “degrowth” is used by several actors in the television and cinema sector who see it as a risk to the transmission and vitality of Quebec's French-speaking culture.
The decrease in projects accepted in 2023 compared to the previous year is about 30%, indicates the president and CEO of the Association québécoise de la Production Media (AQPM), Hélène Messier.
And if this decline is partly explained by the overload of screens in 2023 as a result of the resumption of activities after the pandemic, the situation is anything but circumstantial, say several speakers. These illustrate that funding is stagnating in several respects and that there is a significant budget gap for French-language productions in Quebec compared to productions in the rest of the country.
According to Quebec Cinema and Television Bureau (BCTQ) president and CEO Christine Maestracci, there is a “real funding problem in the system.”
Some aid during the pandemic was not renewed and costs continued to explode amid high inflation.
For a film produced before the pandemic and for a similar film produced now, costs have increased by 30 to 40%, indicates the president and CEO of the Association québécoise de la Production Media (AQPM), Hélène Messier , at.
Hundreds of arts professionals raised a “red flag” for the future of cinema in Quebec in early December, even as they stressed that five local films had grossed more than $1 million in 2023: Le temps d'one summer, Katak the brave Beluga, Testament, My Mother's Men and Simple as Sylvain. Since then, the film “Ru” has also surpassed the million-dollar box office mark.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Still from the film Ru.
In this open letter, they called on the federal Liberal government to keep its promise to permanently increase Telefilm Canada's budget by $50 million per year. And that with this permanent increase comes the organization's commitment to dedicate 40% of its total budget to production in French, up from the current 33%.
No confirmation was made before the holiday season, said signatory Pierre Even, founder, president and producer of ITEM 7, in a Dec. 18 AQPM newsletter.
“If you compare the budget of a series or film produced in Quebec to the same budget it would receive in the rest of Canada, we have very different values,” explains Ms. Maestracci.
According to data from series supported by the Canada Media Fund, the average hourly budget for French-language dramatic television series was $620,000 in 2022-2023, compared to $2.4 million for English-language drama series.
This affects Quebec's ability to “tell our stories,” emphasizes Ms. Maestracci.
Ms. Messier highlights other key elements that the industry will raise with authorities in 2024: the federal government's promise to double its financial contribution to the Canada Media Fund over three years, and the regulatory framework to include foreign platforms online the sanctioning of the Online Continuous Transfer Act or C-11 and improving Quebec payroll tax credits.
A “production performance”
In the same vein, Philippe Falardeau, to whom we owe this year the production of the fictional series “Le temps des framboises” and the documentary series “Lac-Mégantic: Ceci n'est pas un accident”, points out that the financing of public projects the “nerves of war” increase.
The Quebec filmmaker, who shot several projects in the United States after the success of his 2011 film Monsieur Lazhar, affirms that there are no reasons that could lead him to stop filming in Quebec. Whether here or elsewhere, he looks “project by project” and asks himself what he wants to say, what he wants to tell.
Still, he believes filming in Quebec is becoming, in some ways, an “extreme sport.” Especially on the television project side.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESS ARCHIVE
Director Philippe Falardeau
I often say that we are victims of our own competence [au Québec]. On television we have proven that we can move quickly and do great things. So we are setting precedents. Look, this person did it on this budget. And it becomes a “production output”, but that does not mean that it is always pleasant to work in these conditions. At some point we must work together to slow this decline.
Philippe Falardeau
Especially since we are in competition, “whether we like it or not, with Succession, with Game of Thrones, even if only in the time that the viewer has to watch cases”.
Ms. Messier notes that average budgets for television, film and documentary productions have declined by 34% and 31%, respectively, in constant dollars since 2012-2013.
And this in a context in which the audiovisual sector in Quebec has never been more “in competition with content that comes from everywhere and is better financed”.
“Producers are very worried, the industry is very fragile,” says Ms. Messier, who estimates that without quick financial help there will be “significant losses in the number of productions or the quality of production.”
However, daring projects have their place, as Julien Hurteau, director of the productions Les Petits Rois, Alertes 2 and Téodore pas de H, emphasizes. But how long?
“It's a mixed picture in the sense that I personally have never had so many opportunities to work on projects as exciting and interesting as this one. I have the feeling that the broadcasters are bolder, they are trying to make deals. We've seen in the last few years that there are some really good series, like Do You Hear Me? Oh wow, we can go there, there's an audience for that. At the same time, given the platform war, there is so much content that it gets diluted, which also dilutes the money,” he points out.
The multiplication of platforms
In an open letter last November, former manager Denis Dubois called on governments, broadcasters, producers and unions to show “boldness”.
Mr. Dubois believes that we must “make the audience our only priority” and that young listeners “find us along the way.”
“I think they still have a genuine bond, but they can't find us where they are. We have to review our strategies,” says the man who this year left his position as vice-president of original content at Quebecor and, in particular, was general director of programs at Télé-Québec.
Mr Dubois proposes the creation of a common platform “where the public would find all our television, cinema and digital productions and over which we as an industry would have control and marketing.”
He also introduces the thought process: “Produce less, but produce better”.
“We do not have the resources to maintain current production levels. American platforms have accustomed us to productions that we can hardly keep up with,” writes Mr. Dubois.
Although he considers himself one of the privileged in terms of resources due to his experience, Philippe Falardeau “continues to be convinced that there is no point in making films to run out an industry, to run out of artisans, and that not.” Provide budgets that correspond to the accepted scenarios.”
This requires either fewer projects or more money. The equation is very simple.
Philippe Falardeau
Although Ms. Maestracci also questions the funding premises on which we have been operating for a very long time, she believes that we must continue to offer a “wealth” of content to reach all audiences.
“Produce less? How do we ensure that there are emerging voices that stand out? Because we still have to create the successor. And then what do we put on the air? What do we offer people? “, she argues.
We must also keep an eye on the negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements in 2024, which relate in particular to the remuneration of artists and technicians. These negotiations between the AQPM and the Union of Artists (UDA) and the Quebec Association of Image and Sound Technicians (AQTIS) took place until the last weeks before the holidays and must resume in January.