Russia is a member of the 1992 European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production, which enables Russian producers to carry out joint projects with any European country under the conditions stipulated by this treaty. Specifically, for bilateral agreements, the minimum contribution may not be less than 20% and the maximum contribution may not exceed 80% of the total production budget. For multilateral agreements, the minimum contribution may not be lessthan 10% and the maximum contribution may not exceed 70% of the total production budget.
Bilateral co-productions between Russia and a country with which it has a bilateral co-production agreement are subject to the provisions of that agreement.
Russia has signed bilateral intergovernmental co-production agreements with the following countries:
- France (July 8, 1967)
- Canada (October 5, 1995)
- Italy (November 28, 2002)
- Bulgaria (July 7, 2004)
- Germany (July 19, 2011)
- China (July 4, 2017)
- India (September 4, 2019)
The Russian Federation has also entered into a multilateral agreement with the CIS countries. It was signed on November 14, 2008, and its current members are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan.
If a co-production project meets the criteria of the Convention or the relevant bilateral agreement, then, assuming the stipulated procedure is observed, it is treated as a co-production, receives a national film certificate and becomes eligible for state financial support.
Since 2011, Russia has been a member of Eurimages, the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe. Under its co-production support programme, the fund has so far supported 27 film projects involving Russia, of which 20 were Russian majority coproductions.
In 2019, the Russian Ministry of Culture ran its first competition for support for co-production projects with minority participation by Russian producers. Up to RUB 10 million (about €140,000) of subsidies was to be provided per minority co-production project.