INDUSTRY COPRODUCTIONS
IT’S NOT JUST FOR FINANCING, IT’S a passion for telling stories ABOUT OTHER CULTURES”
WHEN A COPRODUCTION MAKES SENSE
Them Down , an Irish-UK-Belgian coproduction. “Coproduction is really integral to financing – of all the films we’ve produced over the last ten years, the vast majority would be a coproduction,” she confirms. Another producer who knows the coproducing ropes is BAFTA- and BIFA-winning Emily Morgan, who founded London-based Quiddity Films. Coproduction has always been at the heart of what she does. “It’s not just for financing, it’s a passion for me,” she explains. “It comes from a personal passion for working with and telling stories about other cultures; looking beyond the UK. “It was part of my work from very early – even before I started the company. The first feature I did was I Am Not a Witch , a Zambia-UK-France-Germany coproduction,” she continues, “and since then I’ve been part of various coproductions. I got to really ramp up that work once the Global Screen Fund launched its minority coproduction support. Since then, I’ve been involved with projects like The Settlers by Felipe Gálvez, which has ten different countries.”
purely in pounds (or euros). “We love coproducing – the financial advantage, the connections, creative element,” she enthuses. For Tailored, the international relationships built through those partnerships have also opened up access to new talent, which has led to new creative partnerships. WHERE THINGS BREAK DOWN: THE CHALLENGES ON THE GROUND Brexit, while cataclysmic for some industries, wasn’t all bad news for coproducing. Yes, there’s now more red tape and some aspects of collaborating across European borders are more complicated, but “it kind of had an upside in the UK because it encouraged the BFI to set up the Global Screen Fund,” muses Morgan. This government-funded, BFI-administered scheme, established in 2021 to support the international ambitions of the UK’s independent screen sector, included grants for UK producers working as partners on international coproductions and has had a huge positive impact. The UK also remains a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-production, while its bilateral coproduction treaties, including those with France, Canada and Australia, remain in place. Very real challenges do exist on the ground though, not least because adding a partner means adding another lawyer, another accountant, different certifications to factor in; potentially even another creative vision to cater to – and things don’t necessarily get simpler once the territories and funding structures have been agreed. For Treacy, one of the biggest headaches is timing – particularly when international funding decisions are involved. “You can be 60% financed,
The financial case is obvious. An official treaty coproduction can open the door to tax incentives and soft money in participating territories, while pooling resources can help spread the risk. But, says Morgan, you should also make sure there’s an actual synergy with the work you are creating. “Ideally, that would be that it has a genuine creative root in multiple countries. We’re building one at the moment where the story takes place in Spain, the UK and Chile, for example, so it makes sense,” she explains. “It’s trying to find those creative coproductions and the countries that suit the creative as much as possible, and failing that – making sure the spend requirements can work within the structure. When you get funds or tax credit from different places, you’ve got to shoot a certain amount in that place – so it’s looking at the spend requirements of all the funds that you’re bringing in, and making sure they all fit together.” Treacy agrees that the value of a coproduction shouldn’t be measured
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