Official Film and Television Co-production in Australia - Official Co-production in Australia

Official Co-production in Australia

Official co-productions are made possible by formal agreements between countries. For filmmakers, the key attraction of a treaty co-production is that it qualifies as a national production in each of the partner nations. Thus, it can access benefits that are available to the local film and television industry in more than one country. Benefits may include government subsidies, tax concessions and inclusion in domestic television broadcast quotas.

The Australian government has signed official film co-production agreements with the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Germany, China and, most recently, Singapore (as treaties); and France and New Zealand (as memoranda of understanding or MOUs. Official co-production agreements set the criteria that a production must meet in order to be considered an official co-production. Criteria may cover co-financing, creative participation and copyright ownership.

International co-productions also occur outside the framework of official co-productions, either with countries that do not have an agreement with Australia, or as projects that do not satisfy official co-production criteria. Examples of the former include the Australia/US co-productions Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001) and Farscape (1999–2003).

Australian co-production agreements are administered by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) on behalf of the Australian Government. (In July 2008 the AFC will be merged with other film agencies to become Screen Australia; the new organisation will then have oversight over co-productions.) The overriding objective is to maintain an overall balance between the creative and financial contributions of each country over time. Accordingly, there is some discretion in granting co-production status to an individual co-production if there is an imbalance between financial and creative contributions.

The AFC’s International Co-production Program Guidelines set out eligibility conditions for the granting of co-production status. These relate to the authorship of the underlying works and screenplays, co-producer participation, sources of finance, control over copyright; and the engagement of key creative participants. Co-productions are restricted to particular genres: feature films, drama series, miniseries, documentaries and telemovies. At the level of the individual production there must be a producer from each of the partner countries, a minimum level of Australian equity in the project (20 to 30 per cent) and matching participation by Australian creative components.

A points system is used to ensure a balance between the Australian budget contribution and the participation of key personnel (creative and crew). Points are attached to key creative positions including director, writer, editor and key cast. By amassing a minimum number of points, a production can qualify as ‘Australian’. In this context the participation of Australian financial and creative resources acts as a proxy for ‘Australian content’. Different points systems apply to the production of live action drama, documentary and animation, reflecting the importance of particular roles specific to each genre.