Guidelines

You can browse the International Co-production Program Guidelines using the menu on the left, or download a copy at right.

Australia is part of a network of countries which provide formal arrangements to enable a film or television program to be officially co-produced between two or more of those countries. These formal arrangements may take the form of a treaty or a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which are collectively referred to as ‘co-production arrangements’ in these guidelines.

To be considered an ‘official co-production’, a project must be approved as such by the ‘competent authorities’ of each of the co-producing countries, and must comply with all of the provisions of the relevant co-production arrangement. These provisions vary from country to country. For example, some co-production arrangements are specifically limited to feature films, while others extend to television drama and documentary, animation and other formats. In these guidelines, the term ‘film’ is used generically for convenience.

A treaty is a formal arrangement between the governments of two or more countries. An MOU is an arrangement between governments or government agencies of two or more countries. While an MOU has less-than-treaty status, in Australia in the context of film co-productions, it has the same practical and regulatory effect as a treaty.

A film approved and made under a co-production arrangement is treated as a ‘national film’ of each of the participating countries, being accorded all the benefits attaching to such films. In the Australian context, such benefits include:

• bypassing the ‘significant Australian content’ (SAC) test for accessing the Producer Offset
  being eligible for production investment from Screen Australia as well as state and territory screen agencies, and
  
• comprising ‘Australian content’ for the purposes of broadcaster quotas.

See Partner countries for information about countries with which Australia has co-production arrangements, and how to suggest new partnership arrangements.

About these guidelines

Screen Australia is the competent authority responsible for administering the International Co-production Program in Australia. It has produced these guidelines to outline the requirements of Australia’s co-production arrangements, and the application process for approval as an official co-production.

Australian co-producers should read these guidelines in conjunction with the application forms available on the Provisional approval, Final approval and Letter of preliminary compliance pages.

Screen Australia reserves the right to vary these guidelines from time to time. It is the responsibility of the Australian co-producer to consult and comply with the Screen Australia International Co-production Program Guidelines relevant at the time of the application. It is also the responsibility of the Australian co-producer to ensure that the Producers’ Agreement complies with the relevant co-production arrangement.

In addition, Screen Australia reserves the right to depart from these guidelines where necessary. Such a departure could be permitted, for example, where an application does not comply with the guidelines but should, in the view of the agency, be approved for some special reason. Screen Australia expects that any such departure would occur only in exceptional circumstances and it will be up to the Australian co-producer to satisfy Screen Australia that relevant exceptional circumstances exist and that the application should be approved.

In all cases, a film cannot be given co-production approval unless it complies with the terms of the relevant co-production arrangement and all relevant competent authorities agree to approve the film.

Australian producers intending to produce a film as an official co-production are encouraged to contact Screen Australia early in the process so that they can be aware of the requirements of the relevant co-production arrangement when setting up the creative and financial structure of their project.