Lee Says South Korea and France Will Invest $1.6 Billion in Film and Video Industries Over Five Years

South Korea and France will each invest 500 million euros in film and video over five years under a partnership unveiled by President Lee Jae Myung and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Lee announced the initiative at the opening of the Lumiere Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France, where the two leaders attended as co-chairs. The investment will begin in 2027 and amount to roughly 800 billion won from each country, or 1.6 trillion won combined.

Lee said the media environment and audience behavior had changed sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic, while the rapid spread of artificial intelligence was transforming how films and other video content are produced and consumed. He called on industry leaders to turn those changes into an opportunity rather than a crisis.

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The media environment and audience behavior have changed greatly since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rapid spread of artificial intelligence is driving major changes in how films and video content are produced and consumed.

The partnership, named the Lumiere Partnership, is intended to support investment in each country’s domestic film and video industries, as well as joint investment and co-productions. Lee said it could help local content reach global audiences. The two presidents also adopted the Lumiere Declaration, which presented 15 areas for action. They included protecting diversity in works, shielding the industry from piracy and recognizing audiovisual production as a driver of economic growth.

Lee later met Korean directors and actors invited to the summit, including directors Lee Chang-dong and Jung Juri and actors Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon and Kim Do-yeon. He also met representatives of Netflix, Disney, Sony and NBCUniversal and called for continued investment in South Korea.

In a separate written interview with Le Monde, Lee said constitutional reform was needed to strengthen presidential responsibility and distribute authority more effectively. On relations between North and South Korea, he said longstanding distrust would not disappear after only a few approaches and that he would seek to encourage renewed dialogue between North Korea and the United States. He said the process could also include discussion of practical ways to restrain North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

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The partnership, to be named the Lumiere Partnership, contains a commitment by the Republic of Korea and France to invest 500 million euros each in the film and video industries over the next five years.