Toronto’s Filmblanc has signed a mutual representation deal with Lee Films of Madrid, which it says creates new opportunities for the Canadian and European commercial production communities.

The culmination of a recent Canadian trade mission to Spain organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the agreement gives Filmblanc access to Lee’s roster of directors for work in North America and offers Lee the option of using Filmblanc directors abroad.

Filmblanc president Noemi Weis says the union opens up new production and creative possibilities between Canada and Europe.

‘Not only are we exchanging talent and potential clients for the North American market, but [the agreement] has opened up, in a way, the opportunity for a Filmblanc center in Europe. Being in Madrid, we will be able to work with clients from other European companies and service them and so on.’

Weis says a new Filmblanc chapter in Madrid will be beneficial to both her company and Lee, as well as other Canadian companies looking to shoot in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.

‘We hope that whoever needs anything in Europe from Canada will think of Filmblanc as a way of getting it while there,’ says Weis. ‘We hope to be able to help and assist any European company that has any production needs here in Canada as well. It’s an interchange of talent, an interchange of productions, an interchange of clients for the North American market and the European market.’

Weis says despite her hectic schedule in Madrid as the only commercial house among the Team Canada companies, she still managed to have a good time. The trip’s climax, the signing, was not what she expected, however.

‘They decided all of the signing was going to be done in a reception hosting about 500 business people and dignitaries from both countries,’ says Weis. ‘It was pretty high pressure.’

Weis says as this new agreement starts to play out and prove beneficial on both sides of the ocean, she is looking at setting up similar deals on other continents as well. She is reportedly close to an agreement with a South American company, but is not forthcoming with details quite yet.

‘Our intentions have always been to put the world together, and we are on the way,’ she says. *

-www.filmblanc.com