Five TIFF 2012 Studio participants are attending the co-production market and other events at the Berlin International Film Festival. Over the next few days, they will blog about their experiences and insights gained from conversations with international producers and industry execs. Here, Devonshire Productions producer Paula Devonshire discusses public funding and producing opps in Chile, Norway and France.

Check out more blogs from Berlinale here.

I arrived in Berlin last Thursday morning with much less jet lag than anticipated and launched right into a fantastic workshop arranged by Trans Atlantic Partners (TAP). Although I am not a TAP alumni like the other participants, I was invited to attend courtesy of the fabulous Jan Miller. The afternoon kicked off with a case study on the Canada/South Africa co-production Inescapable.

Producer Danny Irons generously shared details of the production, budget and financing with our group. For example, we learned about rebates available in various countries that can help with overall financing.

A series of one-on-one meetings followed between TAP alumni from the previous four years where I met and discussed projects with producers from Canada, the U.K., Germany, Finland, South Africa, Poland and the U,S.

Sunday I participated in Producers Without Borders, Telefilm Canada’s Observer Programme at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, which was open to 20 Canadian producers with at least one feature film project in development. Day one featured a case study on the feature Layla Fourie, a four way co-production shot primarily in South Africa with interiors shot in Cologne, Germany.

The following seminar was a choice of two Theme Talks: “Far Away From Home – Filming Abroad” and “Sex Sells, Sex Tells – Sex in Arthouse Films.” As tempting as it was to attend a seminar that features “sex” three times in the title, I chose the Filming Abroad workshop. The panel featured two case studies on filming abroad: Gold by Thomas Arslan, a German western shot entirely in British Columbia and screening in this year’s Competition programme, and straight from the Sundance Film Festival, Houston by German director Bastian Gunther, shot in the U.S.

The day wrapped up with “Countries in Focus: Chile, Norway, Canada and France.” Each of the public funders gave 15 minute overviews on the funds and producing opportunities available in each country. Karen Thorne-Stone from the Ontario Media Development Corporation, gave an informative and impressive rundown of the treaty countries, statistics on projects supported per year and funds available across Canada.

The Norwegian Film Institute also gave a notable presentation with the promise to work with producers who are “fresh, clean, well-behaved and easy to work with.” If that isn’t enough incentive, there is a $55 million Euro production fund. Norway makes about 20 features per year, seven to eight of which are co-productions. The only criteria are you must work with a Norwegian producer and spend some of the money in Norway on location, talent or post.

There is also a new fund within the last year which has $350,000 to $400,000 available overall (or about $100,000 per production). There are also five regional funds available that can be combined with the national fund.

France produces 270 to 280 features per year with 130 as co-productions. The French have treaties with about 40 countries. France has many different types of funding available from French-speaking development loans, technical/VFX subsidies, mini treaties, tax credits and regional funds. There is also a new fund called the World Cinema Support Fund which is a 6 million euro fund to shoot in your own language in your own territory. The grant is given to the co-production partner and is usually about 250,000 euros.

The Studio program is TIFF Industry’s first year-round program, open to Ontario-based producers and aimed at developing next-level creative and business skills and knowledge of the global marketplace through panels, programs and seminars with Canadian and international film experts.