TY - RPRT

T1 - Co-production Trends between Eastern and Western Europe

T2 - 2009-2019

AU - Mitric, Petar

PY - 2019/1

Y1 - 2019/1

N2 - In the past decade, there has been an obvious surge of co-productions between Eastern and Western Europe. Their greater presence at international film festivals and co-production markets testifies to this. The purpose of this report is to respond to this new development, and identify and analyse the major trends surrounding the collaboration between East and West European producers. The report relies primarily on quantitative data from the European Audiovisual Observatory's LumierePRO database , European public film funds and different organisations that foster East-West co-productions. In addition, a number of qualitative interviews has been conducted to contextualise the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the available quantitative data. The report is divided into four parts. Part I introduces the methodological constraints and terminology used in this report. Part II focuses on industry professionals and how their collaboration has evolved over the past decade. The research results confirm an evident increase in cooperation between East and West co-producers. Due to some recent policy actions targeting co-productions (particularly the introduction of support schemes for minority co-productions) the "cross-block" collaboration is much more advanced than it was 20 or 30 years ago when the East Europeans were in a much more difficult position than their Western colleagues due to the collapse of the post-Socialist film sectors. Another facilitator of collaboration between East and West is the emergence of networking workshops for European producers that already connect film professionals from the development or pre-development phases of their projects and thus encourage more organic and more meaningful cooperation between them. The report will place a particular focus on the EAVE Producers Workshop. Part III focuses on trends in the circulation of East-West co-productions. Cinema admissions are analysed on the European and regional (Eastern and Western European) level, but also on the national level through the case studies of two countries-Croatia and The Netherlands. The analysis indicates that while industry professionals from the East and West increasingly cooperate, the cinema admissions of East-West co-productions are growing at a slower pace, which currently poses the most pressing challenge for producers and distributors of East-West co-productions as well as for the Eu-ropean film policy-makers. The report identifies two reasons that trigger this challenge. Firstly, many East-West co-productions are aimed primarily at festival audiences who see those films during their festival life rather than during the theatrical release. Therefore, theatrical and festival admissions should never be seen separately in the context of the circulation of East-West co-productions. Secondly, many of the East-West co-productions still do not have enough presence and prominence on VOD platforms after their festival and theatrical lives. Their absence from the online platforms makes them invisible and unavailable to the secondary audience who, in many countries, still turn to illegal downloading in search of the films they want to see. Furthermore, Part III refers to several promoters and dissemi-nators of the East-West co-productions: two co-production markets (coco and WHEN EAST MEETS WEST) and several relevant sales agents of East-West co-productions. The report then introduces a case study of one of the most recent East-West co-productions, the Slovenian-Norwegian-Italian co-production Zgodovina Ljubezni/History of Love (2018), which exemplifies most of the major trends in the East-West co-productions over the past ten years. Finally, the report closes with some concluding remarks addressing the major trends in East-West co-productions and proposing some recommendations regarding future policies.

AB - In the past decade, there has been an obvious surge of co-productions between Eastern and Western Europe. Their greater presence at international film festivals and co-production markets testifies to this. The purpose of this report is to respond to this new development, and identify and analyse the major trends surrounding the collaboration between East and West European producers. The report relies primarily on quantitative data from the European Audiovisual Observatory's LumierePRO database , European public film funds and different organisations that foster East-West co-productions. In addition, a number of qualitative interviews has been conducted to contextualise the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the available quantitative data. The report is divided into four parts. Part I introduces the methodological constraints and terminology used in this report. Part II focuses on industry professionals and how their collaboration has evolved over the past decade. The research results confirm an evident increase in cooperation between East and West co-producers. Due to some recent policy actions targeting co-productions (particularly the introduction of support schemes for minority co-productions) the "cross-block" collaboration is much more advanced than it was 20 or 30 years ago when the East Europeans were in a much more difficult position than their Western colleagues due to the collapse of the post-Socialist film sectors. Another facilitator of collaboration between East and West is the emergence of networking workshops for European producers that already connect film professionals from the development or pre-development phases of their projects and thus encourage more organic and more meaningful cooperation between them. The report will place a particular focus on the EAVE Producers Workshop. Part III focuses on trends in the circulation of East-West co-productions. Cinema admissions are analysed on the European and regional (Eastern and Western European) level, but also on the national level through the case studies of two countries-Croatia and The Netherlands. The analysis indicates that while industry professionals from the East and West increasingly cooperate, the cinema admissions of East-West co-productions are growing at a slower pace, which currently poses the most pressing challenge for producers and distributors of East-West co-productions as well as for the Eu-ropean film policy-makers. The report identifies two reasons that trigger this challenge. Firstly, many East-West co-productions are aimed primarily at festival audiences who see those films during their festival life rather than during the theatrical release. Therefore, theatrical and festival admissions should never be seen separately in the context of the circulation of East-West co-productions. Secondly, many of the East-West co-productions still do not have enough presence and prominence on VOD platforms after their festival and theatrical lives. Their absence from the online platforms makes them invisible and unavailable to the secondary audience who, in many countries, still turn to illegal downloading in search of the films they want to see. Furthermore, Part III refers to several promoters and dissemi-nators of the East-West co-productions: two co-production markets (coco and WHEN EAST MEETS WEST) and several relevant sales agents of East-West co-productions. The report then introduces a case study of one of the most recent East-West co-productions, the Slovenian-Norwegian-Italian co-production Zgodovina Ljubezni/History of Love (2018), which exemplifies most of the major trends in the East-West co-productions over the past ten years. Finally, the report closes with some concluding remarks addressing the major trends in East-West co-productions and proposing some recommendations regarding future policies.

UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344770801_Co-production_Trends_between_Eastern_and_Western_Europe_2009-2019

U2 - 10.13140/RG.2.2.16119.65449

DO - 10.13140/RG.2.2.16119.65449

M3 - Report

BT - Co-production Trends between Eastern and Western Europe

ER -