Co-producing Across Colonial Borders; Working Between Europe & the Global South

One issue that comes up repeatedly in the conversations I’ve had with producers in Asia and the Middle East over the years is the difficulty of setting up co-productions between ‘established’ (usually meaning Western European) nations and ‘developing’ nations.

Of course, there are other established film producing territories with access to private equity and state funding systems, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and while they vary in their level of support and co-production activity, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. But traditionally, indie filmmakers in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East – who often lack financing resources in their home countries – turn to Western Europe for funding, festival exposure and international distribution.

While this can result in happy outcomes, there are also frustrations with this Euro-centric funding and distribution model – from power imbalances and lack of cultural understanding to logistical issues around structuring co-productions between countries with wildly differing costs.

So, it was interesting to see European producers training provider EAVE organise a think tank in Trieste in January to explore this very subject, the findings of which were published as a report in Cannes. EAVE also hosted a panel in Cannes to follow up on the think thank and report, the major points of which are summarised below.