There’s always been a sophisticated, creative, adventurous type of American who dreams of moving to France. In the 1920s, writers like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein famously left the States for greater cultural and intellectual freedom in Paris. Their compatriots James Baldwin and dancer Josephine Baker fled racism and homophobia back home to freely make their art in France.
Today, America’s Francophile filmmakers have taken up this mantle, at a moment when personal freedoms are being systematically snatched by the administration in the States and Hollywood keeps churning out Marvel sequels. The trend even has its own quippy name: Frollywood.
Welcome to Frollywood!
Social and mainstream media have been abuzz with George Clooney’s recent move to Domaine du Canadel, a luxury estate in Brignoles in Southern France, not far from Chateau Miraval, the famed villa and vineyard that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been fighting over since 2021. Clooney claims he and his wife, Amal, emigrated to give their twins, Alexander and Ella, a normal life far from the paparazzi and other gawkers in Hollywood.
Celebrities have always been taken with la vie française. Like the writers and artists who descended on Paris in the 20s, many American actors and directors move to France to simplify their lives and escape the American obsession with fame. Johnny Depp bought a whole village near St. Tropez in the late 1990s with his former partner, the actress/model/singer Vanessa Paradis, where they raised their children, actress and model Lily-Rose and musician Jack. (While Depp still owns his estate, he currently splits his time primarily between the United States and the UK.)
Actress Natalie Portman moved to France in 2014 with French then-husband, choreographer Benjamin Millepied. While they have since divorced, Portman chose to raise her children, Aleph and Amalia, in Paris, where she appreciates the culture, values, and privacy. Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and his wife decided to sell their Los Angeles home and immerse their children in French language and culture after the 2025 wildfires left them feeling unsafe and longing for a less frenzied lifestyle. Paul told Travel + Leisure, “Every time I came to Paris, I never wanted to leave.” Other celebrities who split their time between France and the U.S. include director Sofia Coppola and actors Angelina Jolie, Hilary Swank, and Timothée Chalamet.
Directors turning to France for inspiration and project financing include Wes Anderson (The Phoenician Scheme, The French Dispatch), a fervent Francophile who has split his time between Paris and New York for years. Meanwhile, renowned independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Father Mother Sister Brother) recently applied for French citizenship. In an Interview talk with director David Cronenberg, Jarmusch said, “My next films will all be shot in France… Shooting [in the U.S.] is prohibitive. It’s stressful, it’s traumatizing.”
An Increase in American Films Shooting in France
Why are so many American productions shooting in France? This is a question we’ve been asking a lot lately, especially since we learned the next season of White Lotus would take place in France. There are a bevy of good reasons, with gorgeous/iconic locations being only one. Even films like The Substance and Emilia Perez, which do not take place in France, were shot in unidentifiable French locations or on French sound stages. So, what’s the deal?
The many reasons France has become a hotspot for production include Netflix opening an office in Paris in 2020, with a deal requiring the streamer to invest 20-25% of its annual French revenue in producing local, original French content. See: Under Paris (and upcoming: Under Paris 2!), Wingwomen, The Wages of Fear and original series Tour de France: Unchained and Chef’s Table: France.
For filmmakers who are not associated with Netflix, the big draw is the famous French tax break, or TRIP (Tax Rebate for International Productions), which offers filmmakers 30% off eligible production expenses incurred in France. There’s also a 40% rebate on eligible expenses for international projects whose Visual Effects (VFX) expenses in France reach more than 2 million euros (such as The Substance, The Last Duel, and Despicable Me 4). Eligibility requirements for budget, number of shoot days in France, and inclusion of “elements related to the French culture, heritage, and territory” are strict, but the TRIP can make a huge difference in a film landscape where budgets are often prohibitive.
According to Film France, French coproductions—like 2026 Oscar nominees Sentimental Value (Norway/France) and The Secret Agent (Brazil/France)—also receive government subsidies, with the French government contributing support for development, screenwriting, production, distribution and theatrical release, but only if filmmakers have an EU passport for a country with a coproduction contract. There are 61 countries, not including the United States, that have official coproduction agreements. Criteria include employing French/European key personnel (director, actors), filming in France or Europe, and satisfying cultural tests.
Is There a Downside?
Producer Mike S. Ryan (Junebug, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire), who has worked on over 30 independent features, including director Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim, shot partially in Paris in 2006, says that France is an extraordinarily expensive place to shoot, regardless of tax incentives. But he concedes that lifestyle factors like shorter work hours, less overtime, and drinking vin rouge at leisurely French lunches enrich the intense filmmaking process.
While the 30-40% tax credit is generous, Ryan says it is often not enough to compensate for costly social charges, strict labor regulations, and union-negotiated minimum wage standards for technicians. Salaries for top-notch professional crews account for about 33% of a film’s budget in the States, but in France there is a 60% increase in base salary to cover fringe costs like healthcare, pension, and union fees. Ryan says the tax credit can make production feasible, especially if the script demands French locations, but it doesn’t provide an advantage over places like Canada, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, or Albuquerque, which also offer 25-40% tax credits with lower production costs.
Competitive European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland offer significantly lower production costs than France, on top of a comparable 30% tax rebate. Many of them have locations that can be shot to look like the States—or France, for that matter. Spain offers a 30% rebate that extends up to 54% for production in the Canary Islands and Navarra. Ireland offers a 32% rebate on eligible Irish production expenses with a 40% incentive comparable to France’s for productions spending at least a million euro on VFX. The result is a bustling international film scene, with Apple TV in particular transforming Ireland into a film hub with shows like Bad Sisters and Wolfwalkers
Another challenge for crews hoping to shoot in France is the steep price of high profile locations. Director Ron Howard reportedly paid a million euros to shoot at the Louvre for The Da Vinci Code. That 2006 film was a massive box office hit, starring Tom Hanks and Amélie star Audrey Tautou and grossing approximately $760 million against a $125 million budget, but smaller productions struggle to pay for key locations. Permits, transportation and cast and crew accommodations can also cost a bundle, especially in historic locations and major French cities like Paris, Nice and Cannes.
What’s Politics Got To Do With It?
A bigger problem at the moment may be that the French don’t want us there. It is one of many countries pulling away from the United States, as our current administration turns its back on allies, lobbing tariffs at them and threatening to withdraw from NATO. Ira Sachs’ film The Man I Love was initially the only American film in competition at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival—and it has the advantage of French financing. (A late addition brought James Gray’s Paper Tiger into the race, but Hollywood has been largely cut out of the 2026 event.)
While the French are opening their arms to George Clooney, happy to lure high profile film biz figures from the States, fewer people are talking about the jobs lost in the U.S. film industry, which is already suffering. Not only can most film professionals not afford to uproot and move to Europe, many have had to sell their houses and take odd jobs to survive the work shortage in Hollywood, especially with the Los Angeles wildfires and industry strikes ratcheting up the pressure.
“It’s tough to be an expat,” Ryan says. “For a common person, it’s not rosy. It’s hard to get into the medical system and hard to get residency—for regular people who aren’t George Clooney.”
Some have responded to this quandary with proposed new incentives, while others have taken a more punitive stance, as President Donald Trump did last year, when he threatened to impose 100% tariffs on movies shot outside the U.S., largely to stop runaway production in other countries, calling foreign productions a “national security threat.” Despite the heated rhetoric, he never offered a clear plan as to how these tariffs would be implemented, earning nothing but scorn from the Frollywood set.
Yet Trump isn’t the only politician taking this issue on. Eliminating the cap on production tax incentives in Los Angeles is a hot button issue in the city’s mayoral race. Just this week, LA mayor Karen Bass, currently seeking reelection, announced that she supports unlimited film incentives in California, in an attempt to keep production in the state. “We are in a global battle for entertainment jobs, and we must hold nothing back in our fight,”she said in a statement. “This is about an industry that is essential to our middle class and who we are as a city.” On April 21, Bass rival Nithya Raman agreed. “Los Angeles is losing Hollywood,” she said. “Not because productions want to leave, but because we’ve made it too hard for them to stay.”
The Upshot
There are a lot of good reasons to make movies and TV shows in France. The locations. The top notch crews. The tax incentives. The lifestyle. But the question of where to shoot a movie, whether a blockbuster superhero thriller or an intimate Jarmuschian independent film, is complex. Producers have to do the math and calculate the tangled web of pros and cons. Is it worth another couple million euros to let your protagonist shop on the Champs Elysée or gawk at those sparkly Emily in Paris-esque views of the Eiffel Tower? Filmmakers must be wondering if AI can generate those elements in a post-production facility in New Jersey.
Regardless, France has become a major hub for American cinema. Clearly filmmakers, celebrities and everyday Americans fleeing political turmoil are drawn to France for reasons that are not purely financial or practical. A lot of locations offer tax incentives. But in what other country can filmmakers bask in the glow of a rich cinematic history that includes the work of Godard, Varda, and Bresson? The work of Assayas, Sciamma, and Denis. To be a filmmaker in France means living an honored profession that is respected and receiving governmental support for your art—a far cry from the battleground of the American film industry today.
Andrea Meyer has written creative treatments for commercial directors, a sex & the movies column for IFC, and a horror screenplay for MGM. Her first novel, Room for Love (St. Martin’s Press) is a romantic comedy based on an article she wrote for the New York Post, for which she pretended to look for a roommate as a ploy to meet men. A long-time film and entertainment journalist and former indieWIRE editor, Andrea has interviewed more actors and directors than she can remember. Her articles and essays have appeared in such publications as Elle, Glamour, Variety, Time Out NY, and the Boston Globe.
