How French animation is weathering the storm
The global content industry is in turmoil and France’s animation sector has taken a big hit. In a roundtable panel hosted by C21, a group of French execs discuss the struggles they are facing and how the country’s strengths can help it to bounce back.
Morgann Favennec
In September, the annual UniFrance and CNC joint survey revealed a steep decline in exports of French animated programmes in 2023, with sales falling by 11.2% to €51.2m (US$56.7m) year-on-year. A major contributor to this was a dramatic drop in sales to the US, which slumped by 69.7% to €4.3m.
France’s animation sector is world-renowned, having spawned hit TV series like Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Adventures of Tintin and Totally Spies! as well as films including the animated Asterix movies. But the global content industry is going through its toughest period in a long time and French animation is not immune.
“The good days are definitely over,” says Morgann Favennec, deputy MD of Mediatoon Distribution. “Inflation, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions – you name it, we have very good excuses to explain the situation.”
It’s not just the international distribution of French animation that is suffering; the global economic crisis has put local production and broadcasting under a lot of pressure too. Emmanuele Petry, partner at animation studio Dandelooo, says it has come to a point where broadcasters are faced with a moral dilemma over the assigning of commissions.
“One of the broadcasters told me that, as someone with commissioning power, it’s very difficult because they sometimes have to say no to a specific project and then the company might become bankrupt. They can only give one show to each company because a lot of them are struggling, so it’s an ethical decision about whom they give a commission to. It’s a vicious circle; if one company goes under, that attracts others in the downfall. And that’s really, really scary.”
The streaming boom allowed animation companies in France to expand their workforces when vast amounts of work started coming in, but when there’s a boom, there’s always a bust, and now many major French studios have had to scale back their operations after having projects cancelled by the US streamers.
Julien Chheng
Julien Chheng, who co-founded Paris-based Studio La Cachette in 2014, says the company grew “very rapidly” to 150 employees during the animation peak. The studio’s credits include Netflix’s adult anthology series Love, Death & Robots and horror series Primal for Warner Bros Discovery’s Adult Swim.
“We managed to split [our projects between] our clients. We were not Netflix-dependent. One show was developed with Netflix, one with Warner Bros and another would be with Disney, for instance. So when Netflix pulled out from the development of one of our shows, we did not collapse completely. We tend to split the investment from different clients so we don’t depend too much on them. And that’s maybe how we managed to survive,” Chheng says, although he adds that the company downsized to about 30 to 40 staff last year.
“That was quite brutal, but it was also an opportunity for us as producers to develop our own IP and not rely too much on production service, so we can build up a catalogue that’s valuable with our experience from working with the streamers.”
Chheng says the streamers are now “the last people” Studio La Cachette tends to approach for financing, as it relies more on regional public funding and traditional broadcasters.
One of the French animation sector’s strengths is the commitment it receives from the country’s public broadcasters, as well as its competitive tax incentives and subsidies. Mediatoon Distribution’s Favennec also hails the industry in France for its flexibility and creativity.
“Our advantage is that we are much more flexible than other territories and much more creative on the artistic side of things. But we have to become creative on the business side of things,” she says. “We have to change the model.”
Noting that “it’s all about cycles,” the exec adds that she is optimistic French animation exports will improve next year.
There could also be a silver lining in the form of animated feature films. “We’ve never lost one euro with animation. Animated feature films always tend to travel; they always sell,” says Yohann Comte, chair and co-founder of animation film sales house Charades.
According to Comte, there is “huge, huge appetite” for animated feature films, while those targeting adults are becoming “easier and easier to sell” to the streamers.
I Lost My Body appeals to a young adult audience
“We had an adult animated movie a few years ago called I Lost My Body that only Netflix wanted at the time. We target theatrical distributors but no-one was super interested in that film. Things have changed for adult animation [films on streaming] – not drastically, but it’s a better environment,” he says.
“That is the only type of content today that is appealing to the young-adult audience outside of American Marvel movies and local comedies in France. So we’re hoping the young-adult audience that was only interested in anime is now opening up to non-Japanese adult animated content.”
Thibaut Ruby, partner at animation prodco Folivari, agrees that feature films are an area of animation that can still be relied on, noting that “the figures have been going up since Covid.” Explaining that “the animation industry in France has grown to an unprecedented size,” he echoes Favennec by adding: “We are at the bottom of the cycle right now, so hopefully we can only go up.”
Ruby identifies the global animation sector as having been split into two factions, one for big IP and the other for original ideas, the latter of which is suffering as cash-strapped, risk-averse buyers look for safe bets.
“It really seems like the animation world is being split into two types of production and companies: the big IPs, where you can get more and more money and do bigger productions, and new independent creations, which are the most challenging now,” he says.
“We have a lot of great IP coming from France but it seems it is going to be harder and harder to create new IP and have new IP evolve into something important. We need to be very cautious with developing something new; putting it to the world is expensive and risky. It’ll be one of the challenges, not only for France but for animation globally in the years to come.”
Netflix’s adult anthology series Love, Death & Robots
Dandelooo’s Petry supports Ruby’s comments, saying: “If you don’t have huge names and huge brands, they [the platforms] are not going to listen to anything you have. The big companies are getting bigger with their brands and the smaller companies are defined as ‘artsy’ with very small productions. It’s almost two different worlds, which has always been the case but it’s even more so now.
“It’s a question of surviving and not being too demanding on margins and profits to keep the companies alive and continue on a steady basis. We need to be very careful with every euro we put in development and not to get dispersed in too many projects. Sometimes I feel we’re developing too much.”
Animation producers are also facing the difficulty of how to work with YouTube – the number one media platform for kids. It’s where the eyeballs are, but how do you put a new show on there without the funding to make it? And if you can scrape together the funds, how can you generate a profit?
“YouTube is great if you have a back catalogue to exploit. You can revive your catalogue and get revenues from there, which is obviously a very good thing,” says Mediatoon Distribution’s Favennec.
“But none of us [in the room] have found a way of producing for YouTube at reasonable costs,” she adds, acknowledging that while some content creators have managed to successfully launch new animation on the platform, quality can be compromised when budgets are low.
“We tried at Mediatoon with a show called Roger & His Humans, which was made with a very famous French YouTuber. But we have not found the business model to make it globally profitable, even though the series proved to be a success, reaching 125 million views,” Favennec says.
Another technological threat to the world of animation is the continuing rise of AI, which Chheng says is “frightening every artist in our studio right now.”
According to the exec, Studio La Cachette is focusing on developing stories that could not be perceived as having been made with AI, “because there is still a level for what feels true and handcrafted and made by humans.”
“We’re confident we can adapt to it, as long as we keep on making original art, content and stories that are specific, human and heartfelt,” he says.
Folivari’s Ruby foresees the loss of some jobs and the creation of others as a result of AI but doesn’t believe it will lead to the “disaster” some people claim it will. “We have to be hopeful that overall the balance will mean more creative jobs and fewer not-so-interesting jobs. It’s something we need to watch. There are risks but there may be rewards as well,” he says.
France’s animation sector, like its counterparts around the world, is going down a rocky road. But in tough times, people club together and collaboration can be key to getting that commission.
“One way to survive and keep active is to coproduce with European countries,” says Dandelooo’s Petry. “That’s a way to minimise risks; it helps a lot because we’re together in the same boat. It’s definitely something we rely on to get projects financed.”
France’s public broadcasters have been a cornerstone of the country’s animation sector, but Favennec is also encouraged by privately owned commercial channel TF1’s recent decision to increase its investment in animation from 2025. “It’s not all bad news,” she says.
Studio La Cachette’s Chheng stresses the industry needs to be “more responsible than ever with our money and public fundings. In France, we have this special power to make every euro look like €100 to the world. If, for instance, our next feature is only €3m, it needs to look like it’s €10m to the world. And that’s something we can achieve,” he says.
“We need to make sure we reflect on how we use every penny we have on a project so that it is profitable. [The aim of] owning a business, for me, is to turn everything into profit so we can reinvest in original ideas and be ambitious.”
Ruby concludes: “At some point, people will get tired of Paw Patrol season 12. They [the streamers] want something different, even if it’s loosely based on something people know. A lot of IPs are running towards the end of their lives, or at least they need to be reinvented. It’s not the same as producing our own shows but at least it’s a door to keeping everything moving and being able to invest in our own shows.”
This article was based on a roundtable discussion organised by Percy & Warren.
