South Africa, Ireland to Sign Co-Production Treaty

LONDON - South Africa and Ireland are scheduled to sign a co-production treaty at the 65th annual Cannes Film Festival later this month.

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The treaty will enable productions from both territories to qualify for the incentives available in each country for home-grown content producers. The arrangement is also designed to enable collaborations between producers from both countries.

It is the latest co-production treaty for South Africa, which has recently attracted such international productions as Chronicle, Safe House and Dredd, with a European country.

The first South African co-production treaty with Canada was signed in 1997, followed by Germany, Italy, the U.K., France, as well as fellow Southern Hemisphere countries Australia and New Zealand.

South Africa's Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile will lead a delegation from his country to the Croisette for the May 20 signing of the Ireland deal.

South Africa's co-production deals have so far been used for such films as U.K. co-production Skin, The Bang Bang Club and A Million Colours in partnership with Canada, Death Race, in which Germany was the partner, and French collaboration Skoonheid.

South Africa currently offers production incentives that allow for a cash rebate of up to 35 percent of qualifying spending by local productions up to a certain amount, followed by 25 percent for expenditures above that level.

Foreign productions get a change of a 15 percent rebate, which will likely soon become 20 percent. Companies from countries with co-production  pacts get treated like local companies.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai