“Create a Business in the Culture Sector” forum: five innovative projects receive a prize

The “Entreprendre dans la Culture” forum has been organised for the past ten years by the French Ministry of Culture, and aims at acknowledging “the value of cultural entrepreneurship” and to share practical information on programmes and initiatives that encourage employability in the cultural sector. The Forum is directed both at cultural entrepreneurs and cultural projects leaders. Each year, the forum welcomes more than 2,000 entrepreneurs and professionals from the cultural sector to support them in their projects, as well as students and young graduates trying to build a business in this sector.

Innovation and energy transition

As part of the Forum, the IFCIC Entreprendre dans la Culture prize was created in 2016 to reward “a promotion of companies or associations that have developed, in the cultural and creative sectors, an economic model or a form of organisation that is remarkable, innovative, original, responsible and/or sustainable”.

The €30,000 prize is funded by the Institut pour le Financement du Cinéma et des Industries Culturelles (IFCIC, Institute for the funding of cinema and cultural industries) and the French Ministry of Culture. The ministry explains that the total prize money is intended to “support and boost creative entrepreneurial initiatives”. Winners benefit from customised support from IFCIC on financing and financial engineering issues, as well as the expertise provided by the ministry’s network. This year, the selection committee received 98 applications. These applications were examined by a panel of judges taking into account their originality, their “breakthrough, innovative, responsible and/or sustainable nature” and the exemplary nature of the initiative. Five projects emerged from these applications “for their innovative nature” and their response to “an energy transition issue”.

Five innovative winners in the service of culture

Here’s a closer look at the five winning initiatives, all innovative and “in the service of culture”:

• Carpanorama: a “mobile stage and recording studio” project based in Normandy, and aiming at “bringing culture to the most isolated areas”. Carpanorama offers “a solution for cultural distribution that is both cheap and ecological”;
• Les Augures: an association working to “decarbonise the cultural sector” by setting up a “collaborative ecoscenography platform”. This platform references materials, ecosystems, techniques, tools and projects designed to help “change the practices in relation with eco-design and the reduction of environmental impact”;
• Rafe Productions: this project, launched in 2021 by Rappeuses en Liberté, is a “programme dedicated to the professionalisation of female rap artists”. The project aims at “bringing more women to rap music, the main music style in France, but in which women are particularly under-represented”;
• Sound Exploration Technologies: a project developed by a start-up specialising in “a sound signal processing technology that transforms sounds into vibrations”. This technology can offer deaf and hard-of-hearing people the chance to dive in music and sound in a “rich and emotional experience”;
• Unframed Collection: the first distribution platform for “immersive experiences”, i.e. virtual reality and augmented reality, dedicated to cultural venues. Unframed Collection is designed to enhance the distribution and discovery of this new cultural content.

A prize for independent cinema and prizes for innovation in music

In addition to these five prizes, there is the IFCIC Prize for a young independent film production company. The prize was created in 2004 and is endowed with €15,000. It is awarded each year to “a young independent film production company that has successfully sought financing and then produced a feature-length film”, with the support of IFCIC and the professionalism recognised by all its industrial and financial partners. This year’s IFCIC prize for a young independent film production company was awarded to Apsara Films, a production company founded in 2013, which has produced a number of feature films, including Fidelio: Alice’s Odissey, Lucie Borleteau’s first film, Whatever happened to my revolution by and with Judith Davis and Voir le jour (See the day) by Marion Laine.

IFCIC is also a partner of the CNM (Centre national de la musique) Music Innovation Award, created in 2022 to reward three innovative projects for the music and variety industry. In 2024, the winners were Beam for Music, a digital platform specialising in music rights management, Rapsodie, a mobile game that allows music fans to create their own virtual label of real artists, and Billy, a new-generation ticketing platform serving artists, cultural players and producers.

Explore more: 

- on the website of Forum Entreprendre dans la Culture

- about the IFCIC - Entreprendre dans la Culture prize