Co-production Program

Under each Arrangement, Co-productions are jointly granted approval by the Competent Authority in each country. Each country nominates a Competent Authority to administer the Co-production Program. Screen Australia is Australia’s Competent Authority. Approval cannot be given until all Competent Authorities agree that their respective application is in accordance with the relevant Arrangements and their policies and guidelines.

The basic requirement of each Arrangement is that each co-producer must bring a minimum percentage of the financial and creative contribution to the project, and, further, these two elements need to be ‘reasonably in proportion’. For example, if you demonstrate a 40% creative contribution to the project, you would also have to contribute around 40% of the finance.

Each Arrangement specifies a number of terms which must be met. These include:

• minimum financial and creative contributions
• personnel
• screenwriters and underlying works
• location of production
• co-producers’ agreement.

After the project is completed and the expenditure statements have been audited, the Australian Producer applies for Final Co-production Approval.

Producers are encouraged to contact the Producer Offset and Co-production Unit (POCU) to discuss their project prior to submitting a Final Co-production Approval application.

A Step-by-step Guide outlining the Co-production Final Approval process is available at the link below.

Assessment timeframes

Here is the current guide to assessment timeframes for completed applications only:

• Logging: your application must first be logged, then the assessment process starts. Complete applications are estimated to be logged within 3-5 weeks of being submitted. This timeframe will be longer if your application is missing supporting documents or contains errors.
• Co-production Final Approval: assessments are expected to be finalised within approximately 12-16 weeks from receipt of a complete application. This timeframe will be longer if your application is missing supporting documents or contains errors or is large and complex.

It is important to remember that Final Co-production Approvals can only be granted once all the relevant Competent Authorities have approved the project. Applicants should ensure their co-producer is lodging an application to its Competent Authority at the same time to avoid delays.