The UK’s Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) is stirring interest from potential European partners but producers with films in the Berlinale warn stumbling blocks remain.
“It doesn’t yet feel like a flood,” said Andrea Cornwell of Lobo Films, and producer of Special Gala title The Thing With Feathers. “We remain a challenging territory to bring finance to the table for things that aren’t inherently British.”
The IFTC credit works on a used and consumed rule.
“Bureaucracy is the thing that people always talk about when it comes to co-producing with the UK. The legal costs are so high,” added Emily Morgan, of the UK’s Quiddity Films, producer of Panorama title Dreamers. But the IFTC “makes it worth it,” she said.
Berlin-based One Two Films’ Sol Bondy, at the festival with Special Gala Köln 75 and and an executive producer on Panorama’s Peter Hujar’s Day, is working on his first 50/50 UK-co-production, with Parkville Pictures, thanks to both the IFTC and the German incentive.
The seasoned co-producer has advice for UK producers and the BFI which administrates the credit. “You need to take your co-producers demands as seriously as your own ones,” he said.
“When it comes to reporting, the BFI will need certain audits in a different format than a German audit. If you don’t, you’re doomed, as you’re blocking your partner’s cash flow.”
Match fit?
Cornwell raises the point the UK Global Screen Fund – a £7m per year fund set aside to help foster UK international collaboration – has its constraints. “There are quite a lot of restrictions to jump through in terms of needing a lot of the finance already to be in place, and you have to also raise at least the same amount of money out of the UK to match the UK Global Screen Fund.
“On certain projects, [the IFTC is] definitely making it more competitive to come [to the UK], and it is definitely countering some of the escalation and costs. But it feels like the best use of it is going to be on encouraging British production, on British films.”
One country that both European and UK producers repeatedly name as top of the list for appealing co-production partners is the Netherlands. “Small country, very strong and easy to access tax rebate,” said Bondy.
“[The Netherlands has] a brilliant track record,” noted Morgan, owing to an enviable minority co-production fund, and a tax credit that is still recoupable when Dutch crew or talent travel abroad.
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