In 1938 the French film industry was booming and Renoir was at the height of his career . He had had three consecutive hit films and '' La Grande Illusion '' had won awards from the New York Film Critics , the National Board of Review and the Venice Film Festival . The financial success of '' La Bête Humaine '' made it easy for Renoir to secure enough financial backing to form his own production company . In 1938 he founded Nouvelle Édition Française ( NEF ) with his brother Claude Renoir , together with André Zwobada , Oliver Billiou and Camille Francois . All five invested 10,000 francs into the company and intended to produce two films per year . The company was modeled after the American film production company United Artists , which was formed in 1919 as a film distribution company for independent artists by Charlie Chaplin , Douglas Fairbanks , D.W. Griffith and Mary Pickford . Renoir rallied his friends in the film industry around the company and got financial support from René Clair , Julien Duvivier , Jean Gabin and Simone Simon . NEF 's headquarters on the Rue la Grange-Batelière was sublet from Marcel Pagnol 's production company . On December 8 , 1938 Georges Cravenne published a press release in '' Paris-Soir '' announcing that Renoir and Pagnol were about to sign an agreement to procure a large theatre where they would publicly screen " the films that they would direct from then on . " '' The Rules of the Game '' was the only film produced by the company
Venice Film Festival
5th Venice International Film Festival
The Rules of the Game