For Your Consideration… International Co-Productions

In general, when you watch a foreign film, if you look at the DVD case or the online description of the movie, it will generally say that the movie is French or Indian or Spanish, etc. But in reality, a lot of foreign movies being made now are not only the product of one country, but multiple countries' resources being combined. When you watch some European films, for example, they actually have been produced by multiple nations.

In recent years, there have been an increase in the number of international co-productions. In these international co-productions, two or more nations pull together resources (money, production crew, etc) in order to pull together one final product. This blend can be interesting when you have two countries that have often been in conflict with each other, such as France and Germany, make a movie about a mutual conflict, such as during World War I. There are also many films I’ve come across that have been released in the United States that are not just American films, but co-productions between Canada, Mexico, or other countries.
   

In Europe, there is a program run by the European Union’s Council of Europe called Eurimages. This program provides support to a select number of films a year that are produced by two or more member nations that exemplify common European values. If you watch many European movies, you will see a stamp that indicates it was supported by the Eurimages funds.
 
In Asia, China has just signed two international co-production agreements, one with India and the other with South Korea. This is significant as China has a 20-foreign-film-per-year limit on movies that can be imported into the country. In addition, India also signed an agreement with Spain in order to increase film collaboration there.

While many films are co-productions, they still get nominated for awards, making it appear like the film was only produced in one country. In some cases, like the Academy Awards, the nomination is based on the spoken language in the film. Usually, the country whose language is used in that film will apply to be nominated for the award. In the case of the next featured film in this blog, No Man’s Land, this film was produced by many nations, but the credit is mostly given to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Co-productions are a great way for film companies from different countries to work together, plus it helps smaller film industries to be seen by more people. And it’s further proof of how the world is smaller than you would think it is.