Written by new-contact on Dec 23, 2013. Posted in On Location

Cambodia and France sign filming co-production agreement

Cambodia and France have signed a filming co-production agreement that will make it easier for filmmakers in both countries to become partners on international shoots. France already has several similar agreements in place with several Asian countries including Japan, India and China.

“It will give hope to filmmakers here not to make projects that are based only on this small market but to have projects that are universal and can be interesting to other countries,” Cambodia Film Commission’s Cedric Eloy told the Phnom Penh Post.

One immediate beneficiary of the agreement could be upcoming feature The Gate, an adaptation of a memoir of Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge regime, which perpetrated genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s. The film is set to be directed by Frenchman Régis Wargnier.

Exotic visuals make Cambodia a popular filming location. The country recently appeared in Heineken’s Dropped digital campaign, where a traveller was left in a remote part of the country and had a series of adventures finding his way home with nothing but a rubber-duck boat for company.

It will give hope to filmmakers here not to make projects that are based only on this small market but to have projects that are universal and can be interesting to other countries.

Cedric Eloy, Cambodia Film Commission

Cambodia Film Commission offers production support throughout the country and can help get location filming permits from the central government. France offers a Tax Rebate for International Productions (TRIP), which is available in its overseas territories as well as the mainland.

France already has a co-production agreement with China, which could help qualifying shoots access the Chinese market more easily by getting around strict annual quotas on international theatrical releases. Action sequel Transformers: Age of Extinction is among the latest big-budget productions to film in China.

Images courtesy of the Cambodia Film Commission & Location Database.