Film London and the Ile de France Film Commission this afternoon sealed a new deal at the Cannes Film Festival to collaborate together and share best practice.

Through the partnership, which is the first cooperation agreement of its kind, the agencies will explore areas of common interest, encourage the exchange of film-making talent between the two capital cities and join forces in their shared objective of promoting their regions to the national and international production industries.

Similarly to Film London, the Ile de France Film Commission services a popular capital city and as such a substantial proportion of the production industries in its country. Ile de France is one of the twenty-six administrative regions of the country which includes the Paris metropolitan area. Around 70% of all French films are produced in the region and 90% of France’s media industries, including top 3D and special effects experts, concentrate there.

At the core of the new partnership will be to ensure there is a flow of creativity and talent between the industries based in the two capitals. Both have committed to bring together production and post-production talent from London and Ile de France to attend key film industry events either side of the Channel. This will see up to four French producers attending the Film London Production Finance Market (PFM) in October to pitch their projects to international film financiers. Likewise, up to four emerging post-production professionals from London will attend Parisfx, a two-day event dedicated to special effects and digital technology, to be held in the French capital in December.

Beyond the similarities in the agencies’ remits and activity, both organizations have also launched initiatives to develop the sustainability in film and the audiovisual production. ECOPROD in Ile de France and Green Screen in London both encourage environmentally-friendly film-making and the partnership provides an outstanding opportunity to exchange information and best practice for the regions to continue building on these initiatives.

The new partnership is expected to give both agencies a chance to learn from one another’s know-how and to keep improving the ways in which they service their regions and it is a move to help meet the challenges that the international film and production industries face today.

Read the full press release.