The Irish Government has official bi-lateral co-production agreements with Australia, Canada, Luxembourg, New Zealand and South Africa covering feature film, television production and other forms of digital production. If a project is certified as an official co-production, it confers national status of all the co-production territories to that project and is effectively regarded as a national production in each of the co-produing territories. The production is then eligible to benefit from local territory benefits in the co-producing country such as broadcast licence fees, access to tax incentives, regional subsidies and the local distribution market.
These co-production agreements were established to:
- facilitate cultural and creative exchange between the co-production countries
- allow the co-production countries to share the risk and cost of production
- to increase the output of high quality productions
To qualify as an official co-production under these agreements, there must be a co-producer in each country and there must be a balance between the Irish financial and creative contribution.
Application forms for Co-Production status are available through Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board.
Ireland is also party to the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production which enables co-production of feature films amongst members of the EU and some EEA states. For further information see European Co-Production
AUSTRALIA | Films Co-production Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of Ireland
CANADA | Agreement on film and Video Relations between the Government of Canada and the Government of Ireland
IRISH LUXEMBOURG TREATY | Agreement between the government of Ireland and the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on Audio-visual relations
NEW ZEALAND | Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of New Zealand concerning the co-production of films
SOUTH AFRICA | Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the Republic of South Africa