| Bilateral Co-Production Treaties In order to achieve official co-production status the co-producers must carefully plan a production to closely adhere to the requirements set down under each relevant treaty. Each country has a 'competent authority', the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in the case of the UK, which oversees the granting of official co-production status in each country. Prior to a production commencing each competent authority will be requested to assess certain aspects of a production and grant provisional co-production status if it is satisfied that the treaty requirements can be followed. Once all national competent authorities have granted this provisional status each producer can then confirm national financing arrangements triggered by the status and proceed towards production. The conditions of the provisional status must be complied with at all times, and a final statement confirming compliance must be made at the end of the production. Co-producers must inform the relevant authorities if there are any variations in the terms on which the provisional status was granted. Qualification factors include: - A certain percentage of the actors and technical workers must come from the host country.
- An agreed percentage of the film’s revenues must be kept in the host country.
- Distribution must be managed by a local company.
- The producer must be a resident of the country in which the film is being made.
For example, a co-production treaty set up between France and Canada allows participating companies to share in a US$200,000 grant jointly supplied by Telefilm in Canada and CNC in France. They also qualify for French and Canadian quotas, which make the product easier to sell domestically to exhibitors. International Co-Production Treaties | Country | Co-Production Treaties in Force With: | | Australia | Canada, France, Israel (limited agreement), Italy, New Zealand (limited agreement), UK & Northern Ireland | | Canada | More Than 30 Countries Worldwide | | France | More Than 30 Countries Worldwide | | Germany | Spain, UK, France, Italy | | India | None | | Italy | Australia, Spain, France, New Zealand, Switzerland | | Spain | Germany, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, France, Italy, Morocco, Mexico, Portugal | | UK | France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Australia | European Union Co-Production Initiatives Eurimages,
Council of Europe,
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
FRANCE Tel: (33) 388 41 26 40
Fax: (33) 388 41 27 60 www.culture.coe.fr/eurimages Contact: Simone Martz Multinational co-productions began to lose favor in the early 1990s after the failure of Riviera in 1991 which, despite backing from TF1, Granada Television and Dune Productions and further funding from Italy, Greece, Germany and Spain, was a pan-European flop. Increasingly films had been trying to blend narratives that would appeal to each territory into one film, yet the result was invariable bland or incoherent. As a result the level of cross-border co-production fell. In order to offset this decline, the European Union launched a series of initiatives. One, Eurimages, offers interest-free, conditionally repayable loans for co-produced feature films and creative documentaries. The UK withdrew from the scheme in 1995 and, until the UK rejoins, applications can only be accepted if a UK producer is a fourth co-producer in a tripartite co-production or the third in a bipartite provided the producer's share does not exceed 30%. The European Co-Production Fund (ECF) offers commercial loans - up to 30% of the total budget and rarely more than £500,000 - for feature length films produced by at least two production companies in two separate EU states. |
