Netflix Opens New Paris Hub, Increases Investment in France

Netflix has opened a new Paris office as part of its long-term commitment to France’s creative community, including more than 20 French productions planned for 2020.

Located in the heart of the 9th arrondissement, the French headquarters is Netflix’s fourth office in Europe. Netflix France currently employs 40 people, across films and series, partnerships and marketing.

Reed Hastings, founding chairman and CEO of Netflix, commented: “It is a real honor to be in France, with its rich culture and history of storytelling. This office is a sign of our long-term commitment to the country, and will enable us to work even more closely with the French creative community on great shows and films that are made in France and watched all around the world.”

Since launching in France in 2014, Netflix has developed 24 French titles, including six films, nine series, five stand-up shows, three documentaries and one unscripted series. There are several original shows to be produced by Netflix over the coming years as well as a range of series and films made by production partners for Netflix. These include BigBug, a new film by César Award winner Jean-Pierre Jeunet that is based on a script written by Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant; a six-part series, from screenwriter Fanny Herrero, following the lives of four young comedians trying to make it in the Paris stand-up scene; season two of the original YA sci-fi series Mortel; and Sentinelle, an action-packed film starring Olga Kurylenko, directed by Julien Leclercq (Braqueurs and La Terre et le Sang).

The new projects come on the back of a range of original shows already announced for 2020, among them Arsène Lupin, starring Omar Sy; La Révolution, a historical thriller; Damien Chazelle’s The Eddy; Vampires, starring Oulaya Amamra and Suzanne Clément; and two documentaries, one on Nicolas Anelka and one featuring Maître Gims.

Damien Couvreur, Netflix’s director of series in France, commented: “We are incredibly proud of the productions we’re currently filming, the ones we are developing and the ones we’ve unveiled today. The establishment of a new French creative hub brings new opportunities for us to work with the best and most exciting creative talent in France and to bring diverse genres and content to everyone who loves French storytelling.”

Netflix also revealed a series of partnerships with major French creative institutions, to support new voices and to increase diversity within the creative community. These include strengthening its existing partnership with La Fémis by supporting its residency program, an 11-month full-time training course that helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into film and TV. With 1000 visages—an association that provides a number of training programs in the visual arts and promotes access to jobs within the creative industries—Netflix will become the main partner in the program dedicated to series’ screenwriting. Since 2019, Netflix has partnered with Gobelins L’École de l’Image, giving one graduate every year the opportunity to work alongside Netflix’s animation experts in Japan. Netflix will now contribute to Gobelins’ training program by funding four-year scholarships for five students as part of their Master of Arts in “Character Animation and Animated Filmmaking.”