Co-production agreements and financial support
Co-Production Agreements
Portugal is a party to 12 bilateral agreements or treaties on Co-Production, namely with: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Principe, Morocco, India and Israel. Negotiations are under way with the goal of entering into a co-production agreement with Canada.
In addition, Portugal is a party to two international (multilateral) treaties on Co-Production: the Council of Europe Convention (1992, revised in 2017) on Film Co-Production, and the Ibero-American Agreement on Film Co-Production.
Thanks to its double integration – European and Ibero-American – and its bilateral agreements, especially with Portuguese-speaking African countries, Portugal offers a wide range of co-production possibilities involving more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, and co-production with Portuguese producers enables unique bridges to be built between co-producers from across the world.
For more information click here.
Domestic Financial Support
The ICA manages more than twenty categories of financial support for domestic cinema and audiovisual projects, including, inter alia, development, production, distribution, exhibition, festivals and promotion. Support for film production includes short films, documentaries, animation, co-productions with a Portuguese minority stake and co-productions with Portuguese-speaking countries.
This support may be combined with the PIC Portugal Cash Rebate Incentive or the PIC Portugal Cash Refund Incentive, or with other public support, up to the intensity limits of State aid provided for in national legislation pursuant to Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014.
To learn more about annual national support, go to the ICA, IP (Cinema and Audiovisual Institute) website.
Bilateral protocols – mini-funds
On the basis of administrative protocols between the ICA and similar institutions in other countries, producers established in Portugal can receive support for the following:
- Project co-development: agreements between the ICA and FFL (Film Fund Luxembourg), between the ICA and DG Cinema (MiBACT, Italy) and between the ICA and ACAU (Agencia del Cine y el Audiovisual del Uruguay).
- Co-production between the ICA and ANCINE (Brazil).
Supranational Funds
Portugal participates in various supranational funds and programmes, which means that producers established in Portugal can also access the following supranational support:
The European Union’s Creative Europe Programme;
The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund;
The Ibermedia Programme, within the scope of Ibero-American cooperation (CAACI).
Portugal is also a participant in the following funds:
- Eurimages pilot project for Series Co-production (2023-2025);
- ESFUF (European Solidarity Fund For Ukrainian Films);
- New Dawn.
More information can be found here and on the websites for each of the initiatives:
Eurimages pilot project for Series Co-production