On April 28th, Indrek Saar, the Minister of Culture, and Claudia Delmas-Scherer, the French Ambassador to Estonia, signed a film cooperation agreement. It will now be easier for film producers in the two countries to cooperate, since the agreement regulates the state-related organisational and legal issues of coproduction.
According to Minister of Culture Indrek Saar, the film cooperation agreement further promotes international collaboration. “For example, in order to previously receive a grant from the French National Center for Cinema, a third partner state had to be found that already had a film cooperation agreement with France. This new agreement simplifies the collaboration between Estonian and French filmmakers, and provides an opportunity to secure additional funding,” said Saar.
Claudia Delmas-Scherer, the French Ambassador to Estonia, affirmed that the agreement strengthens cooperation between France and Estonia in the field of filmmaking. “The film cooperation agreement enables the continuation of the cooperation which has already resulted in excellent films such as A Lady in Paris (2012) and Dearest Sister (2016), although these have been multilateral collaborative films. The agreement supports the joint film production of our countries and contributes to the development of the film industry,” the ambassador said.
The film cooperation agreement was drawn up by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Estonian Film Institute, as well as the French National Center for Cinema and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The film institutes in the respective countries will be the implementers of the agreement. France has previously concluded 56 similar cooperation agreements with foreign countries. This is the fourth country with whom Estonia has concluded an agreement related to film and audiovisual production after China, Israel and Korea.
The agreement was signed on April 28th at the Ministry of Culture in Tallinn.
http://www.kul.ee/en/news/estonia-and-france-concluded-film-cooperation-agreement