A little earlier, perhaps I forgot to say in my answer that in order to help Quebec through its funding crisis, the task force is studying financial models, as they apply to domestic financial partners, and it has also studied other cinematographic models, as well as what is being done in other countries. This might give us an idea of what funding model Quebec should adopt in order to better support its own film industry.
But the Telefilm Canada strategy is not limited to the task force. We are very proactive internationally. As you know, we administer 53 co-production treaties. Furthermore, we have launched a series of initiatives to stimulate the sale of francophone productions abroad, including an international marketing fund. We can give up to $50,000 per movie to help it find an international buyer, because international sales are one way of financing our own market.
During strategic meetings last fall in Cannes and Namur, we invited our counterparts from other francophone countries, including France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium, to come to a meeting in Montreal next January. I am pleased to report that they all accepted the invitation, and the point of the meeting is to talk about co-productions. They told us that they intended to take direct action to improve what may be called “natural” co-productions, which would not only involve joint financing—this, in reality, means each side is doing the other a favour—but also an effort to reach audiences in both countries.
I must say that the feedback was extremely positive. We expect that a lot of good will come out of this meeting, which may lead to the creation of an international co-production fund. We have presented models for such a fund internally. We will begin by trying to implement this type of approach within our organization to show our counterparts that we are acting in good faith and to encourage them to come on board.