Telefilm expands global reach through Canada’s international co-production push

In recent years, Canada’s international co-production treaties with close to 60 other countries around the world have helped bring such notable films as Oscar nominee The Apprentice, San Sebastian prize-winner Falling, Sundance honouree The Things You Kill and current Canadian Oscar submission Nina Roza to the screen.

Last year alone, the treaties, administered by Telefilm Canada, yielded 53 official film and TV co-productions with a combined budget of more than C$371m.

Telefilm’s role in the co-production process is to evaluate projects to make sure they comply with the relevant treaties and then make recommendations for certification to the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Meeting the eligibility criteria can be a complicated business: Canada and the co-producing country (or countries) must provide at least 15%-30% of the financing, for example, with investment and spending in matching proportions, and “exceptional elements” in a project – such as key cast, crew or locations from outside the co-producing countries – must be specified and approved according to individual treaty requirements.

But the benefits to the producers of an official co-production can be considerable, suggests Julie Blondin, Telefilm’s national director, business affairs and co-production.

“You share the opportunities and you share the load,” says Blondin. “You duplicate or multiply your sources of financing and the promotional support that’s going to be with you on both sides. And you have access to so much more talent.”

Among the financial benefits of official co-production status, which confers nationality to a project in each of the partner countries, are access to larger Canadian tax credits and the possibility of attracting investment from Telefilm itself.

Over the past five years, Blondin reports, Telefilm, while continuing to invest in all-Canadian projects, has doubled the number of international co-productions it helps finance. The increase has come about in part because of an increase in funding applications from international co-productions and in part because co-productions “are traditionally more successful,” Blondin says. “They benefit from the support systems, promotional or otherwise, of two or more jurisdictions.”

Regular partners

Not surprisingly, the UK and France have traditionally been the most frequent partner countries on Canadian treaty co-productions. Besides having languages in common (most co-productions are filmed in either English or French), the three countries have filmmaking ecosystems “that fit together well in terms of timing and type of financing,” Blondin points out.

Over the past five years, however, Canada has co-produced projects with a total of 41 other countries. Following the UK and France, Belgium, Ireland and Germany are also regular partners. Among countries that are becoming more frequent collaborators are Spain, Hungary, Luxembourg and the Netherlands from Europe (where Canada benefits from being a member of Eurimages), and Chile and Colombia from Latin America.

According to Blondin, countries often become more active partners when their co-production treaties with Canada are modernised and become more flexible, less prescriptive about creative personnel and more focused on the economic impact of a co-production for each of the partner nations.

Recent talks involving Canadian Heritage, which negotiates the country’s film and TV treaties, have resulted in the modernisation of co-production agreements with South Korea, South Africa and Switzerland. And according to Heritage, discussions are currently underway regarding brand new treaties with Jamaica and Portugal as well as modernised agreements with Germany, Spain, the UK and China.

With Telefilm’s presence at major film and TV events under the banner of the Canadian Pavilion extending this year to the inaugural TIFF: The Market, the list of Canada’s co-production partners could continue to grow.

Blondin reports that Telefilm is regularly approached by countries wanting to forge filmmaking treaties with North America’s largest nation.

“There’s a lot of interest,” says the Telefilm executive. “We have a super-robust, established ecosystem, and of course we have the talent and the locations. So, a lot of people are reaching out.”

Five official co-productions from this year’s Toronto festival line-up:

Closing Night (Can-Australia)
Dir. Cody Fern
A movie star reunites with the messy family she left behind decades earlier in a drama set in New York but filmed in Montreal.

In Alaska (Neth-Can)
Dirs. Vincent Karetak, Jaap van Heudsen
British Columbia and Nunavut provided locations for the story of an Inuk teen who becomes the target of an FBI manhunt across the northern wilderness.

Julián (Ire-Can-Lux-Den)
Dir. Louise Bagnall
Animated adaptation of an acclaimed children’s book about a young boy whose dream of becoming a mermaid transforms his relationship with his grandmother.

A Long Winter (Can-UK)
Dir. Andrew Haigh
UK director Haigh’s latest, shot in the Canadian Rockies, centres on a young man whose life is upended when his mother disappears during a blizzard.

Where The River Begins (Can-Col)
Dir. Juan Andres Arango
Set and shot in Colombia, the story follows an Indigenous woman, her daughter and a gang member on a journey into the jungle.

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