6 Audiovisual treaty coproduction

The Government of Canada currently has audiovisual coproduction treaties or memoranda of understanding with close to 60 partners.^[21] These agreements offer Canadian and foreign producers the opportunity to combine their creative, technical and financial resources to make coproductions that can be granted national production status in each of the partnering countries.

Coproductions that have obtained national production status are considered Canadian for the purposes of domestic incentives and broadcast quotas. This status can also enable foreign producers to access their own country’s incentives for the foreign portion of the budget. Partnering production companies can take either a majority or minority participation position in an audiovisual treaty coproduction depending on the proportion of financing each producer brings to the project.

Highlights from 2024/25

After experiencing two consecutive fiscal years of growth in 2021/22 and 2022/23, Canada’s overall volume of treaty coproduction (i.e. total global budgets) declined in 2023/24 and again in 2024/25.
The UK and France continued to be Canada’s leading coproduction partners between 2015/16 and 2024/25. France was the leading partner for feature films while the UK was the leading partner for television productions
Both majority ($111 million) and minority ($175 million)-Canadian treaty coproductions declined in 2024/25, although to a greater extent for majority-Canadian productions.
The number of majority-Canadian treaty coproduction projects rose slightly, while the number of minority-Canadian coproductions declined by three in 2024/25.
In the television sub-segment, English-language treaty coproduction decreased to $82 million in total budgets, while there were no French-language treaty coproduction projects in 2024/25. Overall, including coproductions in other languages, treaty coproduction decreased to $83 million in total budgets. There was also a decrease in the total number of projects.
In the feature film sub-segment, English-language treaty coproduction increased to $166 million in total budgets, while French-language treaty coproduction decreased to $28 million in total budgets. Overall, including coproductions in other languages, treaty coproduction decreased to $203 million in total budgets. There was however, a slight increase in the total number of projects.

6.1 All release windows

Audiovisual treaty production

After experiencing two consecutive fiscal years of growth in 2021/22 and 2022/23, Canada’s overall volume of treaty coproduction (i.e. total global budgets) declined in 2023/34 and again in 2024/25.

Exhibit 6-1 Volume* of Canadian audiovisual treaty coproduction, all release windows

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

Note:
Statistics as of September 2025.
*Volume of coproduction refers to the value of total global budgets for coproduction projects and includes the financial participation of Canadian producers (i.e. Canadian share of budgets) and foreign producers (i.e. foreign share of budgets).

Across all release windows, English-language treaty coproduction decreased by 3.1% to $248 million in total budgets, while French-language treaty coproduction decreased by 44.8% to $28 million in total budgets. Overall, including coproductions in other languages, treaty coproduction decreased by 10% to $285 million in total budgets. This is despite a slight increase in the total number of projects.

Exhibit 6-2 Audiovisual treaty coproduction, volume* and number of projects, all release windows

	‘15/16	‘16/17	‘17/18	‘18/19	‘19/20	‘20/21	‘21/22	‘22/23	‘23/24**	‘24/25**
Canadian share of budgets ($M)	141	179	131	180	114	110	93	136	118	104
Foreign share of budgets($M)	214	240	225	137	144	86	117	150	138	144
Total budgets ($M)	355	419	356	316	258	196	210	286	256	248
Number of projects	31	43	34	41	35	29	41	40	38	39

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

Note:
Some totals may not sum due to rounding. Statistics as of September 2025.
*Volume of coproduction refers to the value of total global budgets for coproduction projects. The total volume of production includes the financial participation of Canadian producers (i.e. Canadian share of budgets) and foreign producers (i.e. foreign share of budgets).
**Figures for all languages in 2023/24 and 2024/25 include other languages.

Both majority and minority-Canadian treaty coproductions declined in 2024/25, although to a greater extent for majority-Canadian productions.

Exhibit 6-3 Audiovisual treaty coproduction, majority- vs. minority-Canadian production

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

Note:
Statistics as of September 2025.
* The statistics for majority-Canadian treaty coproduction includes projects where the Canadian share of spending was equal to or more than 50% of the total project budget.

The number of majority-Canadian treaty coproduction projects rose slightly, while the number of minority-Canadian coproductions declined by three in 2024/25.

Exhibit 6-4 Audiovisual treaty coproduction, majority- vs. minority-Canadian production

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

The median project budgets of Canadian audiovisual treaty coproductions declined for French-language projects, from $3.5 million to less than $1 but rose for English-language by $0.8 million. By medium, the median feature film project budget increased by $1.2 million between 2023/24 and 2024/25, and by $0.1 million for television projects.

Exhibit 6-5 Audiovisual treaty coproduction, median project budgets, by language and medium ($ millions)

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

Note:
Statistics as of September 2025.

The UK and France continued to be Canada’s leading coproduction partners between 2015/16 and 2024/25.

Exhibit 6-6 Audiovisual treaty coproduction partner countries, 2015/16-2024/25

	Number of Projects	Total global budgets ($ millions)	Canadian share of total global budgets ($ million)	Canadian share of total global budgets (%)
France	121	795	307	39
United Kingdom	98	629	306	49
Ireland	38	686	237	35
Germany	28	155	75	49
Belgium	22	170	92	54
Australia	18	118	59	50
Israel	18	47	31	67
New Zealand	17	85	31	37
Italy	13	44	14	32
Switzerland	10	31	16	52
Hungary	9	150	69	46
South Africa	8	41	17	42
Other Bipartite	65	224	119	53
Multipartite	43	311	110	35
Total	508	3,487	1,484	43

Source:
Telefilm Canada.

Note:
Some totals may not sum due to rounding. Statistics as of September 2025. The numbers of the countries listed above do not include participation in multipartite coproductions.
* Multipartite production includes audiovisual treaty coproduction projects where Canada has two or more partner countries.

^[21]A list of these agreements can be found on Telefilm Canada’s website at https://telefilm.ca/en/coproduction/international-treaties.