The year 2025 was not like any other for French cinema, as it witnessed a quantitative and qualitative shift in production, which may qualify it to regain leadership at the level of world cinema.
The French delved into specific cinematic genres, geographic regions and distribution channels. According to preliminary export figures released by Unifrance – the international promotion organization for French cinema – in January 2026, French productions generated an estimated 42.5 million views and revenues exceeding €272 million (US$296 million) at the global box office, with some 230 new films being screened abroad during that year.
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These numbers gain importance because they come in a global market that is still rebuilding viewing habits after the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“University” indicates that the year 2025 is in line with the levels of 2023-2024 – that is, more than 40 million views – without returning to the pre-pandemic levels recorded in the years 2018-2019.
Citing the statement issued on the same export day, the website “Cine Europe” – a European institution specializing in film industry news – adds an important note: the global distribution of French films is still below pre-pandemic averages, even with 2025 improving compared to the previous year.
Animation is at the forefront
Animation was the most prominent driver, as Unifrance estimates that animated films will account for a third of all French film revenues globally in 2025.
Scene Europe’s analysis shows that animation accounted for 34.3% of total revenues, ahead of drama (23.6%) and comedy (20.3%). Therefore, “French cinema”, which achieved the best international revenues last year, did not conform to the traditional stereotype of independent French films based – mainly – on dialogue.
This is also evident in the films that came out on top, with Scene Europe reporting that Gintis Zilbaloudis’s Flow, a limited co-production, was the most watched, with 7.8 million global views. It was followed by “Dracula” directed by Luc Besson (3.7 million views in 41 countries), then “Falcon Express“, an animated film, which achieved (2.3 million views in 43 countries).
Variety also highlighted export leaders including Flo, Emilia Perez and Dracula: A Love Tale.
Co-production of minorities
French funding agencies have pushed minorities to the forefront of the cinematic scene and provided the necessary funds for co-production, to implement film projects in which French funding is present but not dominated.
Scene Europe indicates that French productions for minorities accounted for 44.9% of the total international revenues of French cinema in 2025.
This strategy allowed French film to spread despite local competition in the country to which it is exported, as it is the same language and the makers originally belong to that country.
This information is important because it shows how France can “expand” even in the face of intense competition.
The French press has taken up this same point in a more explicit manner, and a film like Flew, one of the strongest exports of the year, is discussed as “not entirely French,” showing how modern “national cinema” export statistics increasingly reflect funding and rights structures rather than language alone.
Latin America is on the rise and Mexico is leading
Universia’s export summary indicates a significant geographic shift, with Latin America becoming the second largest region in terms of viewership, and Mexico being among the regions with the highest ticket sales.
The Scene Europe website details the scale of this shift, noting that Western Europe still leads (44.8% / 17.2 million views), but Latin America rose to (23.1% / 8.8 million views), becoming the second strongest region, while Mexico alone reached 4.2 million views, thus becoming the strongest single national market for French cinema in the world in 2025, which indicates a rebalancing of demand away from the familiar model that gives priority to Europe.
Scene Europe also notes that Europe will still account for 61.5% of total foreign revenues in 2025, but this proportion has declined from its recent peak, suggesting long-term diversification.
Some French media have confirmed this “new map” for cinema audiences. “Latin America is a region with a sustainable fan base for independent French cinema, a fan base that we have not neglected,” Daniela Elstner, CEO of Universia, said in a press statement.
Europe’s cornerstone
Europe remains the cornerstone of the international spread of French cinema. Scene Europe ranks Italy (4 million views), Germany (3.2 million), Spain (2.2 million), Belgium/Luxembourg (1.7 million) and the United Kingdom/Ireland (1.4 million) among the strongest European markets.
But Europe is not a politically neutral single market. Unifrance says that 20% of the feature films recently selected to participate in the “Top Ten International Film Festivals” are French films, making France the second most represented nationality on these festival lists.
Even without mentioning all films, this percentage indicates France’s continuing power to influence selection criteria, as France continues to place works in the position where global tastemakers, programmers and buyers decide what is considered an ‘unmissable film’.
If “leadership” means the return of cultural dominance to one country, the evidence does not support this perception. Université itself confirms that the year 2025 has not yet witnessed a return to levels of film production to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels.
Likewise, Scene Europe highlights the gap with pre-pandemic distribution levels. In the field of digital broadcasting, France is considered a strong country for a non-English-speaking European country, but it still ranks sixth in terms of the share of new foreign releases, behind many global giants.
But if “taking back the lead” means rebuilding global demand on a more modern model – where animation is a staple, minority co-productions expand reach, Latin America becomes a mainstay, and festivals keep their prestigious channels open – then 2025 looks like a credible step in that direction.
Perhaps the most prominent evidence of this is that the international performance of French cinema in 2025 was not driven by the success of a single film by a creative director, but rather by an integrated ecosystem, the pillars of which are the diversification of cinematic genres, the financing structure, geographic expansion, and distribution across multiple platforms.
If this pattern continues, French “soft power” in cinema may look less like a comeback story and more like the story of a national industry learning to travel differently in a new world.
