23/02/2011

As guest of the Berlin International Film Festival, Swiss Head of Parliament Bundesrat Didier Burkhalter signed a new agreement between Switzerland, Germany and Austria, which will extend the possibilities for co-productions between the three countries.

In 1984 Switzerland had signed a bilateral co-production agreement with Germany, and in 1990 signed a similar agreement with Austria. Both contracts are now replaced by the new trilateral co-production treaty. According to the present agreement, the mandatory limit for financial participation from each county is lowered from 30% to 20%. If the parties agree, these limits can even be lowered to 10%. In addition, co-financing (from production companies without any technical-artistic contribution in a given film) is possible with a participation of 10-20%.

Co-production possibilities in the three countries could be considerably extended with this new treaty. Until now, practice proved that increasing production costs made minority participation from co-producing countries hard to achieve when the mandatory minimum participation quota was too high. By signing this agreement the three participating countries emphasized their political will to cooperate in cultural matters.

Burkhalter also took advantage of his sojourn in Berlin to meet young Swiss artists and authors living in the German capital. In addition, the Culture Minister took in a screening of Almanya [+see also:
trailer
interview: Yasemin Samderely
film profile] at the Berlinale, which he attended with the German Federal President Christian Wulff. The Minister, who is known to be a film enthusiast, also paid a visit to the European film Market.