France’s National Cinema Centre, Paris city hall’s Mission Cinema and regional body Film Paris Region have unveiled location filming regulations for the period around and during the Olympic Games and Paralympics in the French capital in 2024.
Mission Cinema has created a schedule for 2024, setting filming rules for parts of the capital hosting events as well as parts of the city not directly impacted by the games. See below for the full schedule.
The plan distinguishes between shoots for action and costume dramas, defining them as “exceptional shoots”, and shoots for other types of films or TV shows, which are defined as “standard shoots”.
For the period immediately preceding and during the Olympics (July 26 to August 11) and the Paralympics (August 28 to September 8), no type of shoot will be allowed in and close to places hosting events, while a reduced number of standard shoots will be permitted outside these zones.
The summer is traditionally a busy time for both local and international film and TV shoots in Paris, which usually empties out of its inhabitants from mid-July to end-August, even if the number of tourists ratchets up.
In the summer of 2023, a record 33 feature films, including John Woo’s The Killer, and 22 series, including The Walking Dead, shot in the French capital for close to 2,000 shooting hours.
There will be 15 separate Olympic sites within central Paris, while the suburbs of Saint Denis, which will home to the Olympic Village, and Saint Ouen, as will the town of Versailles, with the Chateau Of Versailles hosting the equestrian events.
Film Paris Region said it was still able to offer some 1,683 referenced locations outside of the Olympic zones, which could stand in for more famous locations that could be off-limits during the games.
It suggested productions could find central Paris’s trademark Haussmannian buildings in peripheral towns such as Vincennes, Saint-Mandé, Asnières-sur-Seine, Levallois-Perret, Courbevoie and Issy-Les-Moulineaux, or further afield in cities such as Bordeaux and Lyon.
The org also suggested stand-ins for famous monuments such as Lyon’s Pont de l’Université for one of the bridges over the Seine, or the Notre Dame cathedral in Reims for Paris Notre Dame, which is currently off-limits in any case due to the devastating fire of 2019.
Schedule – all dates are in 2024
Period 1: Before March 15 and after November 1
OG Zones: Standard and exceptional shoots possible with special care in a few sensitive work sites.
Non-OG Zones: Exceptional and standard shoots allowed.
Period 2: From March 16 to June (the site assembly period)
OG Zones: Interdiction of exceptional shoots on the perimeters of the Olympic sites. Standard filming possible after expert opinion.
Non-OG Zones: Exceptional and standard shoots possible with special vigilance on sensitive sites.
Period 3: June 16 to September 15 (Immediately before and during the games)
OG Zones: No exceptional or standard shoots
Non-OG Zones: No exceptional shoots. A reduced number of standard shoots will be allowed.
Period 4: September 16 to October 30 (while sites being dismantled)
OG Zones: Interdiction of exceptional shoots on the perimeters of the Olympic sites. Standard filming possible after expert opinion.
Non-OG Zones: Exceptional and standard shoots possible with special vigilance on sensitive sites.
