Production companies may not invest the sums entered in their automatic cinema production account for the production of feature films or benefit from the selective financial aid provided for in section 3 of this chapter as well as the aid mentioned in title II of book VI when, among the remuneration allocated directly or indirectly, to co-authors or their heirs or legatees who are natural persons, to performers playing the lead roles and to other natural persons engaged as producers of a feature film, the highest total remuneration awarded to any one of these persons exceeds a cumulative amount calculated as follows:
– 15% of the share of the production cost of the work below €4,000,000;
– 8% of the share of the production cost of the work equal to or greater than €4,000,000 and less than €7,000,000;
– 5% of the share of the production cost of the work equal to or greater than €7,000,000 and less than or equal to €10,000,000.
The total remuneration, allocated directly or indirectly, includes the following sums, definitively acquired before the national theatrical release:
1° Salaries and other remuneration, excluding social security charges, in particular in respect of copyright or related rights, owed to the natural persons mentioned in the first paragraph, including by publishers who are transferees of the audiovisual adaptation rights to a printed work;
2° Sums received, directly or indirectly, by the natural persons mentioned in the first paragraph through the intermediary of the following companies:
a) Companies controlled, directly or indirectly, by these natural persons;
b) Companies in which these natural persons are chairman, director, manager or member of a management body.
With regard to long-form cinematographic works belonging to the documentary genre, the provisions of this article only apply to works for which the highest total remuneration exceeds €990,000.