International coproductions: how they work and why they happen

How do you make international coproductions without losing the plot? Nicola Foley chats to two experienced producers to find out.

Film production has never been cheap, and fronting the resources to get what you need to get done, done, can be one of the biggest challenges of all. For producers, getting a project over the line increasingly means looking beyond borders for a partner to help make it happen.

Coproducing, which is markedly on the rise around Europe, can open up access to finance, tax incentives and various forms of ‘soft money’, as well as bringing myriad other positives: expertise, production infrastructure, new talent, routes into distribution and potential audiences that can have a huge impact on both the film itself and its commercial chances.

But with every additional partner, the tapestry gets a bit more complicated: another territory means another set of rules and regulations, different opinions to satisfy and a web of logistical considerations. The trick is making sure the value the partner brings outweighs the potential headaches of bringing them on board.

What is a coproduction?

At a basic level, a coproduction is a collaboration between two or more production companies. This could be a national coproduction – two companies from the same country partnering – or international – a collaboration of producers from two or more countries joining forces on an international project.

There’s also a third kind: the production services agreement (PSA), where one independent company provides production services to another for a fee. This gives more flexibility, but doesn’t tend to provide the same access to public funding and incentives as an official coproduction treaty.

This way of getting films made is on the up: in 2025, around one in five films made in the UK was a coproduction, according to the British Film Institute (BFI), and the UK Global Screen Fund has now backed 68 international coproductions involving partners in 35 territories. On the face of it, it’s a shift driven by necessity. After all, securing the necessary funds can be an uphill slog right now, thanks to a patchwork of factors including Covid’s legacy, the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and general political and economic uncertainty, all of which have led to a shakier landscape. But look a little deeper and you’ll find that the drivers for coproduction are a lot more nuanced than cold hard cash.

“They are becoming more popular, and I actually think the UK has been one of the last to the party,” asserts Tailored Films’ Ruth Treacy.

“It used to be the case that UK producers would only consider it when it was essential, financially, but that misses the point that it can be really beneficial creatively too, and even overall for the project’s success – it’s not just that pure cost-benefit analysis anymore,” she adds.

As co-founder of Dublin-based Tailored Films, Treacy brings an interesting perspective to the rise. In Ireland, international collaboration has long been the norm, rather than a new trend. Tailored has built much of its slate around international coproductions. Recent credits include The Apprentice, the Canadian-Irish-Danish production directed by Ali Abbasi, and Bring 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.”

When international coproductions make sense

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 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, but you’re planning then to apply for a fund that’s really important to your film. But then if you don’t get that, what’s the impact overall to the production?” she questions. “So it sometimes encourages people to end up applying to a number of different funds, and that can be tricky too. Because then you’re kind of hedging your bets…” She thinks the solution is “always managing expectations and communication – this is the really important bit”.

Then there are the more prosaic realities of international production: conflicting time zones, tired Zoom calls, masses of paperwork and the logistics of keeping teams in different countries aligned.

Treacy agrees that if a breakdown happens, communication is generally the culprit – or relying on assumptions. “You’ve got to keep reiterating the key vision and goals – not just in a financial sense, but what the director requires, what’s needed to make the film a certain way,” she says.

“When we’re coproducing, we like to have meetings at least once a fortnight and then move to once weekly in pre-production. It keeps everyone on the same page.”

Another big challenge is monitoring spend across territories, and making sure there isn’t a “huge overspend that then bleeds into other territories – we’ve had that happen on one or two occasions. You have to be very [on top of] the budgets and seeing what’s coming in and what’s going out in each territory,” she adds.

For Morgan, one of the biggest things is simply working out whether the financial benefit of adding another territory genuinely stacks up against the creative and practical demands it brings with it. “The spend requirements that you have can be a challenge,” she says. “You might get funding from a place – but does it really fit the creative needs of the project? Or bigger picture, does it end up costing more? What’s the net value of bringing another country and the funding from there?”

She cautions against adding a territory simply because there is another funding pot available, particularly when the conditions attached begin to dictate the way the film is made. “You do have to be careful that it’s not just a case of having exhausted other options. Think about [whether] it’s counter-intuitive to the creative,” she says.

Maintaining your voice – and avoiding a ‘Euro pudding’

A potential pitfall of adding more partners is that you run the risk of a ‘too many cooks’ situation, ultimately leading to dilution of the film’s true voice. “If you have four or five partners, you can end up with what they call a Euro pudding,” says Treacy. “You have to question: is it worth it? What do I have to give up? You might end up having to film in two or three countries, with different crew; it can be very fragmented – and that can come through in the end product.”

Both producers stress the need for a clear lead: “Someone who can have the final say on things, and the responsibility for channelling the creative vision – everybody follows in their slipstream,” says Morgan.

But the fear that a coproduction will inevitably dilute a film’s identity is, Morgan argues, a bit of a misconception. “If anything, [coproducing] enables stories to be told and, if it’s done properly, there is someone leading the creative and standing by the director’s vision.”

The keys to success in international coproductions

For producers considering dipping a toe into coproducing, both Morgan and Treacy return to the same fundamental point: know who you’re getting into business with. Morgan advises getting to know potential partners before the pressure of a production kicks in, building relationships through festivals, labs and industry events, and checking a prospective partner’s track record.

Treacy, similarly, stresses the importance of doing your research and finding a producer who is genuinely like-minded. And, if possible, she recommends partnering with a company that has coproduced before. “You always learn something more,” she says. “If you can work with someone who is more experienced in production and has more contacts, then that’s going to help elevate you and your company.”

For Treacy, the increasingly complex financing landscape means international collaboration is likely to become ever more important. “I think everyone should coproduce,” she concludes. “I think it’s a necessity going forward in terms of the challenging financial landscape we’re all in.”

 

This article appears in the October/November issue of Definition

WORDS: NICOLA FOLEY.