James Weyman is program consultant, skills development and marketing initiatives, at the Ontario Film Development Corporation.

A delegation of Canadian producers and industry reps recently landed in Australia for the Australia Documentary Exchange, organized by Toronto’s Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. The primary target of the exchange was the Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide, Nov. 2-6, with a pit stop on the way home at the Screen Producers Association of Australia Conference in Sydney, Nov. 10-13.

The mission: to survey the current environment for cofinance and coproduction in Australia, and schmooze.

Support for the exchange came from the ofdc, Telefilm Canada, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and the Canada Council.

‘It was a natural fit for us,’ comments Anne Pick, Hot Docs cochair and one of the prime movers behind the Exchange. ‘The Canadians basically took Australia by storm. The size of the delegation made us a noticeable presence, both in terms of increased business opportunities and a higher profile for Hot Docs.’

As well as registering delegates for the official conference program, Hot Docs set up sidebar micro-meetings with key Australian and international buyers. After introductions to industry vips like Channel 4’s Jacquie Lawrence, Discovery International’s Chris Haws, Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Geoff Barnes, or sbs’s John Hughes, the Canadian producers followed up with one-on-one meetings.

Australia has been much like Canada in its desire to support indigenous production based on culturally significant content, and is only starting to look outward in a significant way. The size of the Australian broadcast market is limited by the population of 19 million, as well as by the fact that cable and satellite are only just taking off, with low penetration to date. The new specialty channels that are online have no cost-of-licence obligations for original programming, compounding the problem of limited shelf space and licence fees for producers.

That said, Australian producers are starting to look at coproduction as a serious strategy to overcome the limitations of the domestic marketplace, particularly for more ambitious projects. As a result, the Canadian producers were much in demand with their Australian counterparts.

‘I had a number of e-mails from Australian producers asking for meetings before I left Toronto,’ says Michael McMahon of Primitive Features. ‘I was happy to find that the Australian industry has an infrastructure with the potential for producers to bring in funding from mechanisms that are like our own. Now that I know what they can bring to the table, there are several producers I will be following up on projects with.’

Most of the producers in the delegation came away with solid new relationships, and some were able to reinforce existing ones.

Michel Ouellette of Montreal’s Cine Qua Non was already at an advanced stage on a feature documentary coproduction with a Melbourne producer and finalized several deal points.

Ouellette feels the impact of the Canadian delegation went further than relationships. ‘I think the exchange has helped overall with policy and how Australians and Canadians will work together in the future. Greater understanding of each other’s business cultures is critical, and will hopefully make future projects easier.’

Next stop Sydney

Many of the Australian industry players at the aidc were to be found the following week at the spaa conference in Sydney. This annual all-industry meet combines the Aussie doc and drama worlds, though the emphasis this year was on tv drama and features. Several members of the Canadian delegation stayed over for the event.

While business in Australia seems to be booming (total feature and tv drama production was $678 million for 1998/99, up $127 million from ’97/98), as in Canada there is a concern that rising levels of service work not be mistaken for a healthy indigenous production industry.

Business at Sydney’s recently opened Fox Studios Australia is through the roof, but in terms of homegrown product, the pervading theme of discussion is that the Australian industry is near ‘crisis.’

Several years without an international breakout hit like Shine has tongues wagging and fingers being pointed, despite the fact that recent Oz features The Craic and Two Hands have together grossed $8 million domestically this year. (In Canada, we would be taking out ads trumpeting our success.)

Under scrutiny are the development process, failure by Australian producers to use established talents effectively, the validity of mid-range budget films, and lack of producer market savvy, both international and domestic. Sound familiar?

In television drama, as with documentaries, the Aussie industry is constrained by limited shelf space, dropping licence fees, and reduced presale dollars. There are only five terrestrial channels, and the new cable and satellite services have under a million subscribers spread across three platforms. As Paddy Conroy of Australian cableco Optus Television sees it, ‘there are still not enough dollars in the pipeline’ to fuel many production orders.

A recent study by the Australian Film Commission notes that the value of Australian ‘independent’ television drama production actually fell 22% from ’97/98 to ’98/99. However, the same study notes that the value of ‘coproductions’ during that time tripled to $125 million. On the cultural front, this seems to be setting off alarm bells. But for pragmatic Australian producers it’s the future.

Stuart Scowcroft at Sydney-based Becker Entertainment is looking at projects (one drama, one documentary) with two members of the Canadian delegation. For Scowcroft, the trick is to find content that works for both markets. ‘It’s an increasing part of our financing strategy,’ he says. ‘On the right project a coproduction allows us to reduce the risk of overexposure in covering the deficit out of the Australian marketplace.’

For documentary producers the next big opportunity to meet Australian colleagues will be Hot Docs 2000 in Toronto next May. As a result of the Canadian initiative, the afc will support a return group of Australian filmmakers, funders and broadcasters.