Telefilm Canada announced on Wednesday (May 3) that the five-year total from 2006-10 for Canadian feature film treaty co-production budgets amounted to $1.02bn.
The number includes domestic and foreign budgets of 111 Canadian international co-productions which includes acclaimed award winners such as Incendies (pictured, Canada-France) and In Darkness (Canada-Poland-Germany - minority Canadian).
Feature and television co-production deals struck at the Cannes market in the five-year period accounted for 198 projected or $292m in total budgets.
“When it comes to the production of screen-based content, Telefilm believes that there’s strength in numbers,” Telefilm Canada’s executive director Carolle Brabant said.
“As outlined in our new corporate plan, encouraging the diversification of funding sources, like co-production, to help maintain a strong industry is a priority for Telefilm. These results show that one cannot simply measure the success of Canadian films based on domestic box office, and confirm the importance of our new Success Index, which not only looks at commercial success, but also has a wider cultural and industrial perspective.”
Of the six Canadian productions selected for Cannes this year, three are co-productions: competition title Cosmopolis (Canada-France) from David Cronenberg; Laurence Anyways (Canada-France) from Xavier Dolan in Un Certain Regard; and Hors Les Murs (Beyond The Walls) (Canada-Belgium-France – minority Canadian) from David Lambert in Critics’ Week.
Telefilm Canada’s Perspective Canada series will screen eight films, two of which are co-productions: Hors Les Murs (Beyond The Walls) and Claude Gagnon’s Karakara (Canada-Japan).
Telefilm Canada once again will support the Pavilion networking venue and presents five producers in the Canada Spotlight under the auspices of the Producers Network: Lumanity Productions, Phenomenal Films and Wango Films from Toronto; Julijette from Winnipeg and Twofold Films from Vancouver.
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