On 21 May, Kosovo’s Minister of Culture Hajrulla Çeku and CNC’s President Dominique Boutonnat signed a co-production agreement at Cannes’ Marché du film. The parties involved are France’s CNC, the Kosovo Cinematography Centre as well as the two countries’ respective Ministries of Culture.

The agreement is set to last for an unlimited time and aims to ease the making of co-productions, which will benefit – on a case by case basis – from 20-80% of public backing from the two countries. For some high-end, big-budget productions beneficial for France and Kosovo’s industrial strategy, the support may be reduced to as little as 10%.

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The talks between France and Kosovo to seal a co-production pact began with the release of Luàna Bajrami’s feature The Hill Where Lionesses Roar [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Luana Bajrami
ficha de la película], a first Kosovar-French-US co-production which premiered at last year’s Directors’ Fortnight and was later screened at Sarajevo and Toronto.

Article 1 of the agreement establishes that there will be a joint committee overseeing the two parties’ work and reviewing it every two years. The parties can exit the agreement with a six months’ notice period.

The ties between Kosovo and France became stronger over the last few years. Currently, the CNC is also providing consultancies to help Kosovo’s young film centre to establish a sustainable financial model for its funding. The Eastern European country will also see a new cinema law approved over the course of this year, which promises to provide new financial incentives as well as to modernise the body of law governing the sector.

The deal is part of Kosovo’s bold strategy of bilateral agreements and comes two weeks after the co-production agreement sealed with Israel.

Commenting on the move, Kosovo Cinematography Centre’s director Lum Çitaku told Cineuropa: “This agreement between Kosovo and France is of particular importance because it makes co-productions between the two countries official. Besides, it lays the foundations for more secure forms of co-operation. It also creates the conditions to increase the number of co-productions. Kosovo’s industry and its cinema centre are keen to co-operate with France, which has a very established model and a long cinematic tradition. Moreover, I think from a French standpoint we are [seen as] a very vibrant filmmaking community with young talents bringing in fresh ideas. It’s a mutually beneficial partnership.”