Montreal, Canada was the host city for the Eurimages’ 151st Board of Management meeting, June 18 to 22, 2018. The meeting gathered Eurimages delegates from 37 European countries, government representatives, and leaders from the Canadian audiovisual industry.
Eurimages is the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, and Canada is its 38th (and first non-European) member country. As a leader in coproduction, we’re proud to make the most of this prestigious affiliation, which helps bring new opportunities to Canadian filmmakers, from funding to partnerships, export to coproduction, and so much more. (Want to know more about Eurimages? Find out what it’s all about here.)
Being part of Eurimages is a big deal for Canada. In 2017, seven Canadian projects were selected for Eurimages financing, for a total of $3.4 million. This year, the meeting in Montreal resulted in the financing of a Canadian project produced by Canadian Julia Rosenberg and directed by French filmmaker Bibo Bergeron (who directed Shark Tale), Charlotte is a coproduction between Canada, France, and Belgium. Set in WWII, the animated feature tells the tale of Charlotte Salomon, a Jewish artist who perished in a concentration camp after running away with family to the South of France.
Gender parity was another topic addressed at the meeting, and in conjunction, Telefilm Canada revealed their latest gender parity stats.
“These results are encouraging and positive change is happening, however, the greatest challenge lies with bigger-budget films, where there is a significant gap,” said Jean-Claude Mahé, Acting Executive Director, Telefilm Canada, in Telefilm’s press release, about these gender parity findings. “We need the industry’s collaboration to increase the number of projects led by women in this budget realm.”
Mr. Mahé went on to explain that this was a reason why, last year, Telefilm Canada not only increased promotional efforts and funds allocated to development of projects led by women, but is also presently working on some new incentives to bring these projects into fruition, focusing on women-led projects with budgets above $2.5 million (which are considered bigger budget projects). He also explained that since Telefilm Canada and Eurimages share similar goals including objectives on parity, and understand that coproductions are but one tool and account for a large part of the big-budget film category, the Montreal meeting was the perfect time to “get this message out.” Coproductions are but one tool as Eurimages also shares objectives on parity.
Telefilm also hosted a panel called Success through the Female Lens. The panel moderated by former Executive Director, Carolle Brabant and on stage with her were some of Canada’s top women directors, producers and programmers from across canada’s diverse landscape. You can view it right here.
To view panelists’ reactions and to hear their point of view on our latest parity announcements, check out this video. In a nutshell, there is much work to be done, yet most were heartened by the first positive steps.
