Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

European Film and Television Co-production pp 63–82Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The European Co-production Treaties: A Short History and a Possible Typology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Palgrave European Film and Media Studies ((PEFMS))

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to provide an analysis of the fundamental reasoning behind European co-production treaties by looking back at its historical development and by proposing a possible industry-based typology of the treaties. In doing so, it endeavors to answer a seemingly simple question: In which way do co-production treaties affect collaboration between European producers?

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    This issue only highlights what Galt defines as a major structural dilemma of European cinema—“how to become European—as opposed to simply continuing an older model of national cinemas” (2006, 27).

  2. 2.

    Jäckel analyses the French-UK (1996) and French-Italian (2003a, b) co-production treaties. Baltruschat (2013) deals with the Canada-involved treaties while Julia Hammett-Jamart (2004) investigates the French-Australian treaty.

  3. 3.

    See Jäckel’s European Film Industries and Rivi’s European Cinema after 1989.

  4. 4.

    See https://www.filmfonds.nl/nl/page/4454/new-council-of-europe-convention-on-cinematographic-co-production-at-iffr. Accessed February 28, 2018.

  5. 5.

    See https://mpa-i.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Co-Production_Handbook_English.pdf (2014, 5).

  6. 6.

    A set of creative commitments are necessary for obtaining co-production approval from the Chinese government. These commitments include having at least one scene shot in China, casting at least one Chinese actor, receiving a minimum one-third of the movie’s total investment from Chinese companies, and, in general, illustrating “positive Chinese elements” (O’Connor and Armstrong 2015). Approved official co-productions are treated as “local content” in China, which allows them to bypass China’s film quota system (34 films per year at the moment) and reap a larger share of box-office revenue (around 43%, rather than 25%) (Kokas 2017).

  7. 7.

    Official Co-productions include: Lust, Caution (Ang Lee 2007) and Disney High School Musical: China (Chen Shi-Zheng 2010) . Major Co-ventures include Flagship Entertainment (Warner Bros. & China Media Capital) and Perfect Village (Village Roadshow Entertainment & Perfect World). (I am indebted to Philip Jun Fang from the Northwestern University Chicago for the selection of these examples).

  8. 8.

    Despite the fact that there are examples of successful Sino-European co-productions such as Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Wolf Totem (2015), which earned $8.8 million in France and $110.5 million in China (Brzeski 2018).

References

  • Baltruschat, Doris. 2013. Coproductions, Global Markets and New Media Ecologies. In Transnational Cinema in Europe, ed. Manuel Palacio and Jörg Türschmann. Vienna: LIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandurski, David. 2018. When Reform Means Tighter Control. Accessed April 8, 2018. http://chinamediaproject.org/2018/03/22/when-reform-means-tighter-controls/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioschina&stream=top-stories.

  • Baschiera, Stefano, and Francesko Di Chiara. 2011. Once Upon a Time in Italy: Transnational Features of Genre Production 1960s–1970s. Film International 8 (6): 30–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, David, and Kate Oakley. 2015. Cultural Policy. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brzeski, Patrik. 2018. Berin: China, Germany to Begins Negotiations on Co-Production Treaty. Accessed April 8, 2018. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/berlin-china-germany-begin-negotiations-production-treaty-1084681.

  • Dand, C.H., and J.A. Harrison. 1965. Educational and Cultural Films: Experiments in European Co-Production. Strasbourg: The Council of Europe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Chiara, Francesco. 2013. Looking for New Aesthetic Models through Italian-Yugoslavian Film Co-productions: Lowbrow Neorealism in Sand, Love and Salt. ILUMINACE 25 (3): 37–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, N. William. 2012. Public Policy Analysis. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiil-Jensen, Lars. 2015. Amazon køber The Neon Demon. Accessed February 28, 2018. http://www.dfi.dk/Nyheder/FILMupdate/2015/November/Amazon-koeber-The-Neon-Demon.aspx.

  • Galt, Rosalind. 2006. The New European Cinema: Redrawing the Map. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gernet, Pierre. 2015. L’ajustement de l’encadrement juridique des coproductions aux besoins de l’industrie cinématographique européenne. Unpublished MA thesis, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guback, H. Thomas. 1969. The International Film Industry: Western Europe and America since 1945. Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1974. Cultural Identity and Film in the European Economic Community. Cinema Journal 14 (1): 2–17 (University of Texas Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammet-Jammart, Julia. 2004. Regulating Diversity: Cultural Diversity, National Film Policy and the International Coproduction of Films. Media International Australia 111 (1): 46–62 (Sage Journals).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jäckel, Anne. 1996. European Co-production Strategies: The Case of France and Britain. In Film Policy: International, National and Regional Perspectives, ed. Albert Moran, 85–97. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2003a. Dual Nationality Film Productions in Europe after 1945. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 23 (3): 231–243 (Carfax Publishing).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2003b. European Film Industries. London: Palgrave BFI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kallas, Christina. 1996. The Benefit and the Cost of Co-production. In European Co-productions in Television and Film, ed. Sofia Blind and Gerd Hallenberger, 59–73. Heidelberg: Winter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kokas, Aynne. 2017. Hollywood Made in China. University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lange, André. 2013. Yearbook 2012—Television, Cinema, Video and Video On-Demand Audiovisual Services in Europe. Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luyken, Georg-Michael. 1996. The Business of Co-Productions: Simply Sharing Costs or Building a New European Audiovisual Culture. In European Co-productions in Television and Film, ed. Sofia Blind and Gerd Hallenberger, 115–126. Heidelberg: Winter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitric, Petar, and Joelle Levie. 2016. Medici Report 5: International Co-productions, Development, Gender and Quotas. Annual Report, FOCAL. Lozanne: FOCAL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitric, Petar, and Katharine Sarikakis. 2016. European Cinema Spectator- or Spect-Actor-Driven Policies. In The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Politics, ed. Yannis Tzioumakis and Claire Molloy. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monaco, Eitel. 1974. The Financing of Film Production in Europe. Cinema Journal 14 (1): 18–25 (University of Texas Press).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, Sean, and Armstrong, Nicholas. 2015. Directed by Hollywood, Edited by China: How China’s Censorship and Influence Affect Films Worldwide. U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; Staff Research Report.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paquette, Jonathan, and Eleonora Redaelli. 2015. Arts Management and Cultural Policy Research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rivi, Luisa. 2007. European Cinema after 1989: Cultural Identity and Transnational Production. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sarikakis, Katharine. 2007. Introduction. Journal of European Culture, History and Politics. 21: 1–22 (Amsterdam: Rodopi).

    Google Scholar 

  • Silberman, Marc. 2006. Learning from the Enemy: DEFA-French Co-productions of the 1950s. Film History 18 (1): 21–45 (John Libbey Publishing).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treaty of Rome. 1957. Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community. March 25. Accessed February 28, 2018. https://ec.europa.eu/romania/sites/romania/files/tratatul_de_la_roma.pdf.

  • Weimer, L. David, and R. Aidan Vining. 2017. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yilmazok, Levent. 2012. Eurimages and Turkish Cinema: History, Identity, Culture. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Petar Mitric

Authors
  1. Petar Mitric
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Co-production Research Network, Paris, France

    Julia Hammett-Jamart

  2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Petar Mitric

  3. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Eva Novrup Redvall

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mitric, P. (2018). The European Co-production Treaties: A Short History and a Possible Typology. In: Hammett-Jamart, J., Mitric, P., Novrup Redvall, E. (eds) European Film and Television Co-production. Palgrave European Film and Media Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97157-5_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation