The CNC will reduce funding for French productions that do not respect gender equality

From 2027, the least gender-equal productions will see their public aid decrease.

The National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC) is toughening its tone.

From January 1, 2027, the “parity bonus” system, in place since 2019, will evolve into a bonus system… but also penalties. A first in France, which will not only reward productions which play the game in terms of gender equality, but also financially sanction those which remain below the set objectives.

Concretely, films, series, documentaries and animated works employing at least 40% women in the main management and creative positions will always benefit from a 10% increase in aid from the CNC. On the other hand, productions which do not reach the minimum thresholds will see their funding reduced by 10%.

The CNC justifies this change by the results deemed insufficient by the current system. In 2025, only 33.5% of eligible productions obtained the bonus, compared to 37.3% in 2024 and 39.9% in 2023. Even more worrying, the share of films directed by women fell to 24% in 2024, its lowest level since the creation of this aid.

The public institution, chaired by Gaëtan Bruel, also emphasizes that films directed by women had, on average, budgets 44% lower than those directed by men in 2025. The new system will abandon the calculation by points in favor of a simpler mode of operation, based on a minimum number of key positions occupied by women.

For feature-length fiction films, 15 functions will be taken into account. Six of them will have to be occupied by women to benefit from the maximum bonus. Documentaries will be evaluated on 13 positions, also with a threshold set at six. Animation will be subject to specific criteria: 21 positions will be examined for 2D films (nine of which must be occupied by women) and 24 positions for 3D productions (with a minimum of ten).

The penalty system will, however, be implemented gradually. From 2027, productions will only be penalized if they remain below a first minimum threshold: three positions for fiction, five for animation and two for documentaries. These requirements will then increase each year until 2030, when they will reach the thresholds for the maximum bonus.

With this reform, the CNC clearly displays its ambition: to achieve that 40% of creative and management positions in French productions are occupied by women by the end of the decade.