The 10th Annual Strategic Partners international copro market was not only the biggest of its decade-long history, it also saw more international attendees than ever before.

Representatives from Australia, Brazil, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Scotland, Wales, the U.S. and from across Canada met at SP, held Sept. 14-16 alongside the 27th Atlantic Film Festival, to build relationships that could lead to future film and television projects.

High-profile guests included iconoclastic British director Peter Greenaway and Georges Campana of the French TV production company Le Sabre, who believes strongly in the value of these markets, according to SP director Jan Miller.

‘He said one of the most important things is partnering early, even before you have the package,’ says Miller. ‘When you find the right partner, together you bring incredible elements.’

It was the first SP for Shelley Gillen, head of creative affairs for Movie Central, and she didn’t know what to expect. ‘It’s small enough to make some contacts with coproducers and broadcasters and explore ideas, things you might work on together, as opposed to another environment where there’s so many people and so little time, when it’s almost like speed-dating and you have to check your notes later to realize who you’ve met,’ she says.

Gillen says the market had allowed her to meet a couple of U.K. and South African producers, ‘some likely things I’d like to explore further for partnerships,’ in her efforts to produce ‘premium, HBO-quality programming’ for Movie Central. ‘It’s like going to the spa — the revitalization of your own passion, to share that with people from other countries.’

Noah Harlan, a producer from 2.1 Films out of New York, specializes in international independent features. He had been to Cinemart, but this was also his first time at SP. ‘Generally, as an American producer, it’s hard to do [international coproductions] because all the rules and treaties and partnerships are designed specifically to defend against us, you know? To be precise, it’s designed to defend against the west coast, so east coast producers are actually similarly minded to international parties,’ he says.

He adds that, ‘Unlike a lot of film festivals like Berlin or Cannes or even Sundance, where it’s a very buying-and-selling environment… [involving] largely completed projects, the coproduction markets offer an opportunity to sit down with those people in an undistracted environment and just discuss what’s on the horizon.’

It was the second visit to SP for André Béraud of Cirrus Communications, and he agrees it’s not about the deal, it’s about the meeting. ‘You may not have something to sell, but at least you get to know people and see the affinities. You have a bigger web of people, in a world where coproduction and alliances seem to be the norm.’

International interest was drummed up in the two projects producer/director Camelia Frieberg has in development — Dizzy, a feature script that she’s written and would like to shoot in the next year, and The Birth House, the Amy McKay novel she has optioned. ‘It’s a larger project, [and I am] figuring out where it’s going to land — is it a feature, is it a miniseries?’ says Frieberg. ‘I’ve been able to test to see what interest is out there. I really feel like I made good progress on all fronts.’