In 2025, star power brought audiences home as Eva Green, Romain Duris and Vincent Cassel’s The Three Musketeers: Milady, Guillaume Canet’s action film Ad Vitam and acclaimed author Leos Carax’s idiosyncratic self-portrait It’s Not Me ranked among the year’s most popular French titles on broadcast and streaming.
Kane’s Netflix original has surpassed 70 million views, and Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation was broadcast on 27 channels in nine countries. Meanwhile, Carax’s 41-minute essay (originally conceived as an exhibition piece at the Center Pompidou in Paris) found a much wider audience, being released on two SVOD platforms and reaching viewers in 33 countries.
According to 2025 statistics released ahead of this year’s UniFrance Rendezvous in Paris, France’s small screen exports were dominated by one-shots and feature films, accounting for 80.6% of titles sold internationally. Global specialty platforms Criterion Channel, Mubi and Shudder were key drivers, together delivering 49% of all new SVOD releases. Meanwhile, broadcasters in Spain, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy emerged as the most active linear markets, with French titles accounting for around 10% of their new international programming.
Traditional television remained the strongest showcase for French cuisine. The first broadcast of foreign productions included 6.9% French productions, making France third in the world in terms of representation. Spain leads both in volume (1,836 titles) and market share (10.7%), with pay TV and specialty channels holding the largest positions. Streaming fell slightly behind. French titles accounted for 3.8% of international SVOD releases, ranking sixth by nationality, with Germany and Turkey leading in volume (544 titles) and market share (9.9%). Meanwhile, global platforms delivered around two-thirds of all French SVOD premieres.
Shedding new light on familiar subjects also proved to be a winning formula for French nonfiction. Series such as “Clash of Ancient Warriors,” which was featured on 15 channels in nine countries, and Arte’s “Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Open,” which was broadcast on 14 international channels, highlighted the strong international appeal of the genre.
Speaking to Variety at the last UniFrance Rendezvous, director Patrick Boudet detailed the so-called “French touch” that shaped his biographical documentary.
“Nicole is Australian, which in some ways brings her closer to a European identity,” Boudet said. “We wanted to avoid a gossip-driven approach.[Instead]we wanted to show that Nicole is more than just an actor, she’s also a writer and creator. She has no ambitions to write or direct, but she expresses something that touches her through her films and conveys her worldview.”
