La Gabbianella, an Italian production directed by Enzo D'Alò, cost approximately $5,000,000. © Lanterna Magica.

The "C" Word
Supposing, then, that a producer has a project, which is going to cost $15 million. Even if he's German he'll be hard put to raise as much as half of that. If he's British or French, he may be able to scrape together a quarter from his home territory.

How then can a deficit be funded? Well, the name of the game is co-production. By sharing the production between studios in several European countries, funds can be accessed from several territories because in each one the production will be considered 'national.' This means that even if only 20% of the work is done in the U.K., as long as the production is an official co-production with the U.K., it will be considered 100% British. It will therefore qualify for a tax break as well as, perhaps, attracting funds from the Film Council or a TV station provided enough work is done in the U.K. to satisfy the requirements of the authorities.

Co-productions are necessarily more complicated, and often more expensive than straight, national productions, but for the moment European producers don't really have much choice. They can either settle for tiny budgets and produce in their own countries, or they can be more ambitious and share the work with one or more producers from different countries. A few may be able to sell their project to a U.S. major like Aardman Animations did with Chicken Run, but I would always advise against counting on such a sale.

A. Film's Help! I'm A Fish opened in its home country at the end of September holding the top spot for two weeks and continues to do well with recent releases in France and Germany. Courtesy of Terraglyph Productions. © 2000 Help! I'm a F

To date the most successful European animated movies are those which are done on very small budgets. Kirikou in France, La Gabbianella in Italy and Werner in Germany all had tiny budgets by U.S. standards, but all made a lot of money at their national box offices. That doesn't mean that European producers have to settle for doing low budget productions, but it does mean that, until a pan-European source of funding comes along, it's going to be a lot easier for them to set their sights low and believe that, 'Small is beautiful.'

Making animated features in Europe is still an embryonic industry and will take a bit of time, a few years at most, before all of this changes. In the meantime look out for movies like A-Film's Help! I'm a Fish and Illuminated's Christmas Carol. They may not cost $60 million to make and their distributors may not spend huge sums on promoting them, but they will be every bit as good as many of the movies produced in North America.

Steve Walsh has produced animated and live-action television and feature films. He began in TV journalism, then started making documentary and factual programming, producing a number of award-winning documentaries. From there he joined Goldcrest Films and Television as head of co-production and marketing. Two years later he became head of production at London-based Consolidated Productions. In 1986 he set up Steve Walsh Productions to develop, finance and produce for himself. Successful productions include animated feature The Princess and Goblin and a collection of four TV movies for France's Canal+ and Canada's Astral based on works by Mary Higgins Clark. In 1991 Walsh set up and ran EVA Entertainment, the financing and distribution arm of the first CARTOON-sponsored studio grouping, as well as producing and co-producing some 15 productions. His most ambitious animated project to date, the feature film A Monkey's Tale, was completed in 1999. Walsh was also executive producer of David Bailey's first theatrical feature The Intruder, completed in late 1999. He is currently producing three animated series.