This is not the region that we think of most when we talk about the seventh art. However, the Pays-de-la-Loire do not want to be content with playing figuration in the French landscape of filming fiction. “My ambition is to make our region a land of cinema”, claimed at the beginning of the year Christelle Morançais, the president of the regional council of Pays-de-la-Loire. A delegation from the Loire has also been present for a week at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Market to boast “the richness and assets of the Loire destination to productions from around the world”.
It must be said that the Pays-de-la-Loire are not starting from scratch, far from it. Twenty feature film shoots, short films and television dramas were recorded last year in the five departments of the region. A figure that has been increasing for ten years and which should continue to increase given the strong demand, estimates the Filming reception desk (BAT), a structure responsible for helping productions find sets and service providers.
Beaches, cities, countryside, castles
“Our main asset comes from the diversity of the sets on offer,” says Pauline Le Floch, head of the Filming Reception Office. We find the seaside, dynamic cities, castles, the countryside, industrial sites… All of this gathered in a small geographical area close to Paris. » The castles of Maine-et-Loire, in particular those equipped with period furniture, « are very popular with producers of historical films », as is the medieval center of Le Mans, “very popular for playing scenes of 18th or 19th century Paris”. In another style, the island of Noirmoutier, the salt marshes of Guérande and the city of Nantes are also attractive, as is Saint-Nazaire for “its industrial character and its small romantic beaches”.
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Another asset of the Pays-de-la-Loire: the desire of producers to get out of an Ile-de-France region saturated with filming and to find new landscapes in the provinces. “Some sites, like in Paca or Occitanie, are already in high demand, it’s less original and less easy to work there. But the time of a film is ultimately very short”, justifies Pauline Le Floch.
If the Pays-de-la-Loire has not yet been chosen as the main setting by one of the big American productions, for which there is “a lot of competition in Europe”, they have nevertheless hosted several remarkable films these last years. Take, for example, In the name of the earth (2019), shot in Mayenne, I’ll go wherever you will go (2019) filmed in Nantes, Camille (2019) in Angers, What else have we done to God? (2019) in Saumur, Little Nicolas Holidays (2014) in Noirmoutier, The Aries family (2014) in Mayenne, or even Le Mans 66 (2019), some scenes of which were captured at Le Mans.
Significant economic benefits
In 2021, the filming of fiction had generated just over 4 million euros in economic benefits for the region. Nearly 170 technicians from the Loire were also recruited last year by film production and more than 70 secondary or main roles were cast.
“There are also indirect effects in terms of image when a territory is positively associated with a film,” says Pauline Le Floch. Tourist spin-offs, sometimes, with the arrival of visitors after the release of a film, which we observed at Le Mans. And then, even if it’s less visible, there’s the cultural satisfaction, the pride of residents and professionals in participating in the making of a film. »
Two feature films supported by the Pays-de-la-Loire region were selected this year at the Cannes festival : Our ceremonies by Simon Rieth and Polaris by Ainara Vera.
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