- More than 18 000 films were produced in Europe between 2007 and 2016.
- Overall production volume in Europe grew by 47%, from 1 444 feature films in 2007 to 2 124 in 2016.
- Majority European co-productions accounted for 20.4% of the overall production volume in Europe over this period.
- The volume of feature documentary production almost doubled over this period, reaching 698 films in 2016.
- The production of feature fiction also rose significantly, by 33%.
These findings come from a brand new free European co-production report just published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The report is entitled: Film production in Europe - Production volume, co-production and worldwide circulation.
I. Top 10 producing countries accounted for 73% of total volume
The top five producing countries – the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy - accounted for 53.6% of overall production in the 36 countries covered in this report. The top 10 producing countries accounted for 73% of the films shot between 2007 and 2016. Only five of the 36 countries covered showed a decline in production between 2007-2008 and 2015-2016 (the UK, Belgium, Norway, Estonia and Hungary).
II. Majority co-productions in Europe – France tops the list with 566 co-productions
In absolute terms, France topped the list, with 566 co-productions from 2007-2016. Only Belgium (56%) and Luxembourg (53%) produced more films as majority co-producer than as fully national producer. In fact, the share of co-production was below European levels in just 13 countries.
III. European countries co-produced with 150 countries; On average 60% of the co-productions were with other European countries
studied (with 105 as majority co-producer and 142 as minority co-producer). However, only 11 European majority co-production countries co-produced with more than 30 countries over this period.
On average, 40% of the films co-produced with other countries as European majority co-productions were with non-European partners, with the US as the most prominent non-European partner for European majority co-productions. In turn, French/Belgian co-productions clearly topped the ranking for the most frequent co-production partnerships, with 207 Franco-Belgian films made between 2010 and 2015. British-American, Italian-French, French-German and Belgian-French productions completed the list of the top five most frequent co-production tie-ups, with the involvement of at least one European partner, over this period.
The average number of co-production partners increased over the period covered; in the EU, it rose from an average 1.48 co-production partners in 2010, to 1.65 in 2015. A total of 27 countries were within a bracket of 1.45-two co-production partners on average, per co-production. The figure rose above two in only four countries.
