Human creation and AI: the CNC is preparing a reform of its support schemes
A reform announced to regulate AI in film and audiovisual production
In an interview with Le Parisien, the Minister of Culture, Catherine Pégard, announced a forthcoming change to the rules for awarding funding from the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC, French national film centre) in order to protect creative work from artificial intelligence. The stated aim is not to prohibit the use of AI in works, but to reserve public support for projects in which AI remains a tool serving authors, artists and technicians, without replacing human creation.
The requirement of human creation
According to the Minister, “creation is not reuse, it is an act of innovation”. She also stated that, under the future rules, the CNC would not fund works without an identified human author and that only dubbing based on a human performance would be eligible for support.
A major issue for film financing
This announcement is far from trivial, given the structuring role played by CNC funding in financing the French and European film industry. At the most recent Cannes Film Festival, many of the award-winning films had benefited from CNC support schemes.
Valeska Grisebach won the Jury Prize for L’aventure rêvée, supported by the Aide aux cinémas du monde (World Cinema Support fund). Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo won the Caméra d’Or for Ben’imana, which also received the Aide aux cinémas du monde and the Jeune création francophone fund. In the Un Certain Regard section, Rafika Fariala was honoured for Congo boy, while Louis Clichy received the Special Jury Prize for Le Corset, a film supported by the Avance sur recettes (advance on receipts scheme). At Critics’ Week, Marine Atlan received an award for La Gradiva, also supported by the CNC.
The AI Observatory: anticipating uses across the industry
To support this development, the CNC had already set up an AI Observatory in March 2024, tasked with objectively assessing and monitoring the use of artificial intelligence in the moving image industries by means of barometers and sector consultations.
The AI usage barometers were drawn up on the basis of questionnaires sent to professionals in the various moving image sectors: animation, post-production and VFX studios (December 2025), video game studios (December 2025), distribution and export companies (December 2025), and authors and screenwriters, producers, filmmakers and collective management organisations in film and audiovisual (May 2025 and June 2024).
A central difficulty: actually identifying uses of AI
A major difficulty nonetheless remains: that of effectively identifying the use of AI in works. In practice, the boundaries between technical assistance, partial automation and creative substitution are particularly blurred.
Despite the Observatory’s work, actually checking the declarations of the professionals concerned and assessing the real degree of human input are likely to prove complex, given that generative AI tools are now integrated into every stage of production: writing, previsualisation, dubbing, VFX, post-production and animation.
A reform with potentially very far-reaching implications
The forthcoming reform of CNC funding will therefore have to meet a delicate challenge: protecting human creation without introducing a control criterion that is difficult to verify in practice.
The Minister’s announcement could also have an impact on the industry’s major players. Since the 2021 SMAD Decree (on on-demand audiovisual media services) and the media release windows chronology that followed it, Netflix, Disney+ and the other platforms have been subject to obligations to invest in French film production. If they want their French productions to benefit from CNC funding, they will therefore have to comply with the future rules governing the use of AI, which gives the announced reform a much wider reach than it might first appear.
Sources
Barometer of AI use in film and audiovisual: video game studios, December 2025
Barometer of AI use in film and audiovisual: distribution and export companies, December 2025
Barometer of AI use in film and audiovisual: 2nd edition, May 2025
Barometer of AI use in film and audiovisual: 1st edition, June 2024
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