The creative and cultural industries (CCI) are essential to the economic health of a country. In France, they account for 1 million jobs and €102 billion in revenue in 2024. But do French and francophone culture and creation stand as a strong force internationally, accompanied by Belgium, francophone Africa, or Quebec? Not quite. Francophone creative industries are lost in an anglophone ocean, and the PIX Festival is trying to find solutions for them to emerge and establish themselves.
French has its advantages, being spoken by 300 million people worldwide and having regional specificities that contribute to its diversity. “We must turn this commonality into a strength,” says Emmanuel Delamare, CEO of EuraCreative. This common ground should help in establishing partnerships between regions, like between France and Quebec, and potentially between Belgium and France, in order to go beyond francophonie and create a larger creative region uniting Belgium, France, and Germany, for example, to “establish a new market to distribute creations more easily and foster European cooperation,” explains Delphine Jenart, who manages the digital creativity ecosystem coordination at “wake! by Digital Wallonia.”
To showcase francophone creations, countries need to be “offensive,” as Emmanuel Delamare puts it, taking South Korea as an example. The East Asian country has implemented a significant soft power policy on American platforms to promote its creations and culture successfully, with Korean music and series gaining international recognition. Dimitri Gourdin, CEO of Zù, a Quebec incubator, highlights that francophone countries rely mainly on governments to promote culture, as seen in Quebec. “We need to also involve private companies, but they are not playing their role in supporting the ecosystem,” unlike Anglo-Saxon countries. “We need to have political, economic, and cultural alignment,” he adds.
Several solutions have been proposed to promote francophone CCIs: having a distribution plan coupled with increased production, easing regulations, working on a common narrative, and highlighting symbolism, such as a “world day of francophone culture,” as specified by Delphine Jenart. As the issue of military and digital sovereignty is on everyone’s minds, Dimitri Gourdin believes it should also be considered for culture. “We must address this topic.” A lengthy endeavor starting in Tourcoing and expected to reach major francophone cities soon.
