On Monday, at the 46th Rotterdam International Film Festival, Pierre-Louis Lorenz, Luxembourg Ambassador in The Hague (Netherlands), signed the revised European Convention on  Cinematographic Co-production.

This new Convention is based on the success of the 1992 European Convention on Culture - of which Luxembourg was already a signatory - and proposes an updated legal and financial framework for producers from different countries wishing to co-operate in the production of a film.

The new text aims to give more flexibility to the producers of an international co-production and also to update the procedures for obtaining the nationality of a film in the countries involved in the co-production. Moreover, the scope of the Convention has been extended to enable non-European countries to benefit from the provisions of the Treaty. This corresponds to the recent opening of the Eurimages Fund of the Council of Europe to countries beyond Europe such as Canada.

The countries participating in the signing ceremony are, in addition to Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The other member countries of the Council of Europe must also sign the new text by a significant number of countries adhering to 47 in total.

Guy Daleiden, Director of the National Support Fund for Audiovisual Production (Film Fund Luxembourg), who was also present at the ceremony, welcomed the forthcoming implementation of this new treaty that will be more flexible for countries like Luxembourg towards international coproduction and an active member of the Eurimages Fund. This simplified agreement will definitely favour cross-border collaboration.

Photo by Film Fund Luxembourg (L-R): Pierre-Louis Lorenz, Luxembourg Ambassador in The Hague; Guy Daleiden, Director of Film Fund Luxembourg; Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, secrétaire générale adjointe du Conseil de l’Europe; Doreen Boonekamp, directrice du Netherlands Film Fund; Roberto Olla, directeur exécutif d’Eurimages, le Fonds de soutien au cinéma européen; Bero Beyer, directeur du Festival international du film de Rotterdam