Telefilm Canada plans to ‘review’ and ‘relax’ current coproduction guidelines so it can be better ‘adapted to current needs,’ says TFC chair Michel Roy, regarding the 56 official treaties the Crown Corp. administers for Canadian Heritage.

‘Furthermore, since the United States does not sign coproduction treaties, we must find the means to facilitate linkages between Canadian producers and their counterparts to the south,’ Roy added during a speech at the CFTPA’s Prime Time conference in Ottawa last month.

Canadian talent unions are uber-cautious about what ‘relax’ means, but producers have been saying for decades that the rules in many of the treaties are Byzantine, even counterproductive.

‘We need greater flexibility to remain a leader in a globalized film world,’ says entertainment attorney Sam Coppola of Borden Ladner Gervais’ Montreal office.

‘When a producer enters into a coproduction, why exclude the rest of the world, other than one leading performer?’ Coppola asks. ‘I understand that we need some limits and that it can’t be completely open, but why is it so much more rigid with copros than it is with a CAVCO-certified production?’

TFC’s Roy – who seems to comprehend that conundrum – underlines that more copros also means more coin for more movies.

‘Due to a larger number of coproductions, English-language productions drew a smaller proportion of their budgets from public funds,’ he said, later emphasizing that TFC ‘already grants one-quarter of the Canada Feature Film Fund to coproductions.’ The implication, of course, is that TFC takes copros seriously – partly because its limited funding can stretch much further when combined with funds from other countries and partners.

TFC’s director of national and international business development Sheila de La Varende confirmed in a phone interview from Montreal head office that revising copro guidelines is a ‘high priority for Telefilm Canada at this point.’

It must be noted however, that copro treaties are the responsibility of Heritage and copro guidelines fall under TFC’s bailiwick.

Heritage is currently going through a coproduction policy review of its own. And de La Varende – who herself has years of experience with both the government and the international marketplace – is confident that some revised guidelines which ‘simplify the process, based on industry demand’ will likely roll out early in this new fiscal year, which kicks off April 1.

De La Varende says copros are key to TFC clients because they can ‘bring greater foreign investment to their projects,’ which is a priority for Canadians and their partners around the globe. And there’s more to it than just copro guideline revisions.

To keep these partnerships brewing, TFC also prioritizes international markets such as Cannes, MIPCOM and Berlin, where overall sales rose 21% to $85 million from $70 million in 2008, the most recent numbers available.

TFC numbers also indicate that copro and co-venture partnerships increased by 20% over the previous year, with 65 Canadian companies involved in 115 deals, reported to be worth of $23 million, with 21 different countries.