Romain Rouillard 9:44 p.m., February 24, 2023

On the occasion of the 48th Cesar ceremony, which takes place this Friday evening at the Olympia, Rima Abdul-Malak, the Minister of Culture, underlined at the microphone of Laurie Cholewa, figures in support, the enthusiasm of the French public for the cinema.

While recalling the support given by the State to a sector in difficulty in recent years.

Competing from video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and even Disney + and undermined by successive closures and confinements during the Covid-19 crisis, the cinema is going through a very delicate period.

Nevertheless, the year 2022 began the beginning of a thinning with 139 million admissions, against only 60 million in 2020. And the year 2023 begins under the best auspices for the French cinematographic sector.

"There were 15 million admissions in January, it's +10% compared to January 2020 just before the pandemic", underlined Rima Abdul-Malak, the Minister of Culture, a few moments before the start of the 48th Cesar ceremony, which takes place this Friday evening at the Olympia. 

"There is an appetite for cinema in our country."



Minister of Culture @RimaAbdulMalak speaks on our microphone.

#Caesar2023pic.twitter.com/LKHeYtLIeF

– CANAL+ (@canalplus) February 24, 2023

"It means that there is an appetite for cinema on the big screen", she analyzes.

A trend that is more difficult to observe in the rest of the Old Continent according to the minister: "We should be happy about it because our European neighbors have much more difficult figures. It is also because we have good films, good producers, good directors and directors", she observes. 

The minister boasts of a "good system of financing cinema in France"

For Rima Abdul-Malak, these encouraging figures stem from a "good cinema financing system in France".

The Minister also highlighted the efforts made by the French State to support the sector.

"It must be said, during the crisis, the State put a lot of money into helping all the links in the chain to hold up during the crisis".

Visible support through this 48th Cesar ceremony.

"There, one out of two films among the feature films nominated for the Césars benefits from the help of the CNC, the national cinema center", she points out.

"And of course, there is the help of all the Canal+, France Télévisions, Arte channels, which are there to bring our cinema to life as well", she concludes.