The National Film Board and the City of Paris have set strict guidelines for film and TV shoots before, during and after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will unfold July 26 to Sept. 8.
While the sportingcelebration will span roughly six weeks, the restrictions impacting filming will stretch over nearly a year, starting this winter until Oct. 31. While limitations had been anticipated by French and international studios, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have delayed a number of shoots which will have to relocate outside of Paris or be further postponed.
Action and period movies will be barred from sites dedicated to the games in Paris, mainly the Concorde and Trocadero areas, starting on March 16 until Nov. 1, and all types of shoots will be barred in the areas dedicated to the sporting events from June 16 to Sept. 15. The City of Paris will grant permits on a case-by-case basis for small-sized, standard films outside of these reserved areas.
“Summertime is usually very packed for us with U.S. blockbusters and epic action or costume movies filming but we’ve been able to squeeze some during the first half of the year,” said Michel Gomez, who heads up Mission Cinema, the org in charge of coordinating shoots in Paris. Gomez cited Jon Woo’s “The Killer” remakewhose shoot was paused due to the SAG-AFTRA strike in mid-July and has been tentatively rescheduled for January.
Along with restrictions, the Cité du Cinema — a key destination for big U.S. movies and shows, which housed the first three seasons of “Emily in Paris” — has been reserved for the Olympic Games from Dec. 1 through Oct.1, 2024. Season 4 of the Netflix hit show was expected to start shooting this summer.
Another flagship studio near Paris, called Studios de Bry, will be up for business during the games. The National Film Board has also given producers several alternate locations for filming in regions surrounding Paris, notably in Versailles, Vincennes, Saint-Mandé, Courbevoie, Marly-le-Roi and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, as well as more than 20 studios across France.
On top of these studios, the City of Paris is looking to lure producers with a wide range of backlots in Parisian streets, as well as decors of Parisian apartments that will be made available for shoots during the Olympic Games. As many as 2,200 referenced decors have already been registered by the org Film Paris Region. The org Film France, which aims at attracting more blockbuster productions to the country, has referenced all French destinations that could be used for productions supposedly set in Paris on social media via the hashtag #ParisLookaLike.
France is competing with other European cities like London and Prague to lure big international shoots. Following the pandemic, the country was able to keep attracting major productions and hosted 287 film shoots in 2022, on par with pre-Covid levels. Besides its landmark locations, the country boasts a competitive tax rebate plan of 30% on eligible spendings, and a 40% rebate for projects using significant VFX work.
