France and Taiwan Sign Film, TV Cooperation Agreement at TCCF Convention
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France and Taiwan on Thursday signed a wide-ranging agreement to enable their film and TV industries co-operate on a higher level.
At a signing ceremony in Taipei at the Taiwan Creative Culture Fest (TCCF) convention, government representatives of both territories stressed shared values at the political level and in the audiovisual sphere. “We have the same philosophy of a cultural exception and commitment to democratic values,” said Franck Paris, director of the Bureau Francais de Taipei.
Homme Tsai, head of TAICCA, referenced the same shared values and said, “we now have international co-productions and cooperation to look forward to.” “Taiwan is the key partner in Asia, in the face of threats from Chinese and American giants,” said Dominique Boutonnat, head of the France’s National Film Bureau (CNC). “The CNC will always be by your side.” Cultural exceptionalism is a policy introduced by France in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, the predecessor body of the World Trade Organization) negotiations in 1993 that sees culture treated differently from other commercial products.
It gives strengthened protection to intellectual property and brands and permits government subsidy for cultural goods. The CNC and TAICCA agreement – described as “memorandum of understanding” in English and a “cooperation agreement” in French – will rapidly be followed by the award of a joint CNC – TAICCA award at Friday’s TCCF project award ceremony.
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