New Zealand Film Commission Chief Executive Dave Gibson and Danish Film Institute Chief Executive Henrik Bo Nielsen signed the co-production agreement on May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Co-production agreements enable approved joint film and television projects to gain “official co-production” status. This status gives co-production filmmakers access to funding and incentives in line with those available for ‘national’ programmes in each country. They give New Zealand filmmakers more opportunity to secure overseas finance, as well as assisting with temporary immigration and importation of equipment.
New Zealand now has 15 co-production agreements; most cover both film and television although a couple apply to film only. Co-productions are administered by the NZFC.
The NZFC and New Zealand producers have attended a number of roundtable sessions with other countries at the Cannes Film Festival and accompanying market. These meetings are conducted with the aim of progressing possible official or unofficial co-productions and collaborations.
This particular agreement with Denmark follows the debut of New Zealand director Daniel Joseph Borgman’s feature film The Weight of Elephants in Berlin in 2013. Shot in Southland,The Weight of Elephants was a co-venture between the New Zealand Film Commission, the Danish Film Institute and Film i Väst, and was the first unofficial film co-production between New Zealand and Denmark.
