MONTREAL: This year, to date, Telefilm Canada has received applications for 39 TV coproductions with France. Of those, 17 have been certified. The agency has received five feature film applications, and three have been certified. Some applications were abandoned. But the vast majority of the TV projects produced in French are documentaries and animation series – the long-standing trend of almost no TV dramas being coproduced in the French language continues.

Brigitte Monneau, Telefilm manager, coproduction, says there have been only three TV dramas coproduced in French with France in ’02 and to date in ’03.

They are:

* Louise, coproduced by Canada’s Les Films Migration (Jean Marc Felio and Richard Sadler – 45.4%) and Expand Drama (54.7%) in France. It’s a story of friendship between a French hairdresser from St. Pierre et Miquelon and a drug addict from Quebec, filmed in St. Pierre and Quebec. Broadcasters are France 2 and TV5.

* Jean Moulin, a 2 x 90 miniseries on the life of the great French resistance fighter, is a Canada/France/U.K. (30/50/20) coproduction with Montreal’s Transfilm that shot in 2002 and is licensed by TF1 in France.

* Felix Leclerc, a $5.4-million four-hour mini, is licensed by France 3, Radio-Canada and TV5. Produced by Rose Films of Montreal and Gema Productions of France, Leclerc is in preproduction and a fall start is anticipated.

Work needed on copro front

Groupe Pixcom CEO Jacquelin Bouchard, who is also chairman of the APFTQ producers association, says, ‘I think there’s a lot of work to do on the part of the organizations that represent Canada, like Telefilm Canada and the government of Canada, to reflect on how to improve the situation with coproductions.’

Those issues, says Bouchard, include the U.K.’s ‘temporary introduction’ of a minimum 40% spend in the U.K., and signing an official TV treaty with Germany.

As for coproducing with France, Bouchard says in recent years financing has been ‘severe,’ in part because of ‘Canadian-content [and] CTF rules.’ He says the content issue is addressed in the Macerola Report, but ‘our foreign partners, and often our French partners, aren’t going to wait around for us to make their living. If it becomes too difficult for them [to deal] with Quebec or Canada, they’ll coproduce within the European Community. It’s easier for them to work within that economic block, and that’s a danger.’

Bouchard says Canada could face a significant decline in international coproduction, sandwiched as it is between more self-reliant production industries in the U.S. and Europe.

Bouchard says coproduction is a hugely important economic sphere for the industry and the future is at risk ‘if we don’t make some urgent adjustments in the Canadian rules to facilitate coproduction.’

Cinemaginaire president Denise Robert says documentaries, and perhaps miniseries, can be coproduced in French, but the development of a revamped industrial strategy may well be worthwhile.

Marie-Josee Corbeil, VP international affairs at Vivavision, says the Montreal house is developing a tween drama project with France’s Marathon and Ireland’s Magma. ‘It will be produced in English,’ she says.

Vivavision has so far keyed on animation (The Lost World, Jacques Cousteau’s Ocean Tale), but is currently developing international TV drama as well as domestic and international feature film projects.

‘But none of the [planned] international feature films are intended to be shot in French,’ adds Corbeil, who does have hopes of developing features in French with French partners.

(France’s Centre national de la cinematographie has published a 60-page report on France animation, including coproduction with Canada [www.cnc.fr]. The commentary on Canada is not particularly positive.)

On French-track TV drama coproductions, Corbeil says the likely buyers are Radio-Canada and Tele-Quebec, ‘but when it’s international production, the normal position is an acquisition, as opposed to [higher] presale or coproduction prices. They are not opposed to making a buy, but the prices aren’t particularly interesting.’

‘The people at France 2 are increasingly open to the idea of coproducing and presales for [products] produced in English [and dubbed in France],’ she adds.

French copros being shot in English

An example of a new TV coproduction with France shot exclusively in English is 15/Love, which started shooting July 7 in St. Cesaire, QC. 15/Love is a Canada/France coproduction from Montreal’s Galafilm, Toronto’s Telefactory and France’s Marathon S.A. The 26 x 30 tween series is slated for broadcast in 2004 on YTV, Radio-Canada and France 2.

Another memorable example is Largo Winch, the big-budget Canada/France coproduction produced for the European and U.S. markets and shot in English.

Pixcom coproduced the doc series Species Odyssey (SRC/Discovery/France 3) and more recently Metropolis, an ambitious four-hour doc series that reconstructs life in four ancient Mediterranean cities, collaborated on ‘exceptionally’ with Germany’s Tangram. The project was budgeted at $3 million and presold to ZDF.

Bouchard says major coproduced drama projects are also in the works at Pixcom, in the hopes of a quick resolution to the copro issues.

Aside from ‘technical’ issues, including the unsettling mix of deadlines, the real challenge, Bouchard says, is identifying subjects and projects of interest to broadcasters on both sides of the Atlantic.

Monneau says it is often difficult to find a subject of common interest to both a Canadian and French broadcaster. ‘[Singer] Felix Leclerc is known in both Quebec and France. But a series on [the late former Quebec premier] Rene Levesque could not have been coproduced because nobody [in France] would have been interested.’

Robert says one of the problems with coproduction is the continual change of personnel administering the coproduction programs. ‘Sometimes the rules are misunderstood,’ she says. ‘The basis of coproduction should be the service of the film, and then, consequently, it serves an industry. Talent makes movies, and coproduction should encourage the ‘marriage’ of talents.’

Robert, whose feature copros include Les Invasions barbares, La Petite Lili, budgeted at $5.5 million and posted in Canada, and La Veuve de Saint-Pierre, says in many instances ‘industrial motives’ have displaced creative ones. ‘When coproduction started, it was to help build a healthy film and TV industry and to help give creators access to other talent. And now a lot of times [copros] are administered with the idea that the labs have to work. To my mind we’re going too much towards promoting service industries,’ she says.

‘I think we’re in an era where coproduction is essential to our survival, because the budgets that are available, whether it’s Quebec or Canada, are limited and are not growing as fast as the cost of making films,’ she adds.

She says one of the main problems with France is the big difference in language. When the French pay-TV service Canal Plus buys Quebec product, it’s dubbed in France for broadcast.

In Canada, Robert points to the increase in double-shoot series (filmed in both French and English), such as Ciao Bella (Cirrus Communications) and The Last Chapter (Tele-Action), or international double-shoot projects such as Napoleon (Transfilm for A&E and France 2) and Les Liaisons dangereuses (Remstar). Perhaps, she suggests, French-track drama series in the future will go the same way – double-shoots for the Quebec and Euro-French markets.

$190 million in budgets in ’03

In the Canada/France category, for the first six and a half months of ’03, there is $190 million in cumulative budgets for 39 TV projects, $81.4 million of the financing from Canada. In feature films, cumulative financing is $63.5 million for five coproductions (including Melenny Productions’ $33-million historical drama Nouvelle-France from director Jean Beaudin, with partners in France and the U.K.), with $36.6 million in financing from Canada.

However, the only listed or certified French-track feature film copro in ’03 (as of July 21) is Littoral, coproduced by Productions EGM of Montreal and Les Films du Cinema SARL of France on a budget of $3.4 million, with 89% Canadian financing.

Last year, Telefilm received applications for 34 TV coproduction projects (23 certified and 11 waiting for a ruling) and eight feature applications, including six that were certified.

In ’02, cumulative Canada/France coproduction budgets totaled $108 million for 34 TV projects, with $49 million in financing from Canada. Financing for eight features in ’02 totaled $52 million, including $17.6 million in financing from Canada. Most of the features received some form of Telefilm funding, either through the CFFF or the mini-treaty on features, says Monneau.

In ’03/04 to date, Telefilm’s investment in international French-language TV coproductions includes $807,000 in drama (the four-hour Felix Leclerc miniseries) and close to $625,000 in three documentaries, including $450,000 in the five-hour scientific expedition Arctic Mission, coproduced by Montreal’s Glacialis Productions (Jean Lemire), the National Film Board (the series distributor) and France’s Gedeon Programmes.

Upcoming ’03 feature film coproductions with France (to be shot in French) include Motel des Pins (Cite-Amerique) from director/coproducer Carole Laure and Les Etats-Unis d’Albert (Productions Thalie), an Andre Forcier film coproduced with France and Switzerland.

Among other new Quebec feature film coproductions with Euro partners, Douglas Law’s The Last Sign (Transfilm/Carrere/Spice Factory) is being filmed in English, while the $6.3-million Andre Melancon feature Daniel and the Superdogs (La Fete/Zephir Films in the U.K.), is a majority Canadian shoot (78%) that will be filmed as a double-shoot.

Another key issue, adds Monneau, is the predominance of domestic drama, including reality series, in both markets.

‘Usually Telefilm does not invest a lot in TV copros, first of all because we don’t have drama copros. Usually, Telefilm’s money goes into national drama.’