NETFLIX and AUDIENS – the social protection group of the French cultural sector in agreement with the Minister of Culture represented by the CNC, announce the creation of a new COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund to help the hardest hit workers in the television and cinema industry due to the near global production shut down caused by the Coronavirus crisis across all of France. Netflix will donate €1 million to Audiens to help launch the fund.
Damien Couvreur, Director Original Series at Netflix explained that the grant is available to the most vulnerable freelancers in the audiovisual and movie sectors, who live project to project – including carpenters, electricians, and hair and make-up artists – and cannot work due to the near global production shut down.

“We’re grateful to be able to work with Audiens to support the hardest hit workers in TV and film production, who are a part of the internationally admired french creative industry. In addition to the support we give to the crews, casts and technical partners involved in our productions, we also want to help those who most need financial assistance in the sector more broadly, especially freelancers hit by the current crisis.” Couvreur commented.
“The funds will help us maintain emergency support we have put in place for the most fragile workers from the cultural industries, in addition to our usual activities. One of Audiens’ core values is solidarity, and we want to thank Netflix for contributing to support freelancers from TV and cinema industries in these difficult times for the media and culture at large” Isabelle Thirion, Social development Director at Groupe Audiens commented.

The creation of this fund is part of an announcement Netflix made March 20th to set up a $100 million fund for creatives whose jobs have been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most of those funds will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on Netflix’s own productions in France and around the world. Netflix’s donation to Audiens, as well as to other organisations around the world (UK, Italy, Spain, etc.), is part of the $15 million of the hardship fund that will be dedicated to providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew across the broader film and television industry in the countries.