Coproduction Office

Overview

Coproduction Office is a Berlin and Paris-based international sales agent founded in 1989 by Philippe Bober. The company represents major European arthouse directors for international sales and, in some cases, co-production financing. Coproduction Office has built one of the most distinguished rosters of any sales company in the world, with long-term representation relationships with filmmakers who have won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Golden Bear at the Berlinale.

The company's name reflects its original model: not merely selling rights, but actively participating in assembling co-production financing for the films it represents. This producer-adjacent sales model gives Coproduction Office deeper involvement in the films it works with than a purely transactional sales agent.

What Coproduction Office Represents

Coproduction Office represents a small, highly selective roster of major European directors. The company's approach prioritizes depth of relationship over breadth of catalog -- it works with a small number of filmmakers across their careers rather than acquiring large volumes of films for short-term sales. This long-term filmmaker relationship model has produced one of the most cohesive and critically consistent catalogs of any sales company operating from Europe.

The company's catalog includes films by directors including Roy Andersson, Ulrich Seidl, Amos Gitai, and others whose work circulates at the highest level of the international festival circuit. Films from the Coproduction Office roster regularly appear in Cannes competition, Berlin competition, and the other major festival sections where the most significant prizes are awarded.

The Producer Model

Unlike most sales agents who acquire completed or near-completed films, Coproduction Office often engages at the development stage, helping to assemble the financing structures that allow ambitious European co-productions to be made. This producer involvement means the company has creative and financial relationships with its films that go beyond the standard sales agent commission structure.

For filmmakers at the level represented by Coproduction Office, the company's involvement is a meaningful signal of critical credibility -- it indicates that the film has been recognized as having the ambition and artistic significance to warrant the company's selective attention.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Coproduction Office is not an accessible acquisition target for emerging filmmakers. The company's highly selective roster and focus on established directors with significant festival track records means that representation requires a level of critical recognition that most filmmakers have not yet achieved.

For filmmakers at an earlier career stage who aspire to work with companies like Coproduction Office, the standard path is through the European festival circuit -- accumulating critical recognition at Rotterdam, Locarno, Berlinale, and eventually Cannes -- before approaching sales companies at this level of selectivity.

Notable Representations

Coproduction Office has represented films including Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014, Golden Lion at Venice), Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Special Jury Prize at Cannes), and multiple Ulrich Seidl films. The company's catalog represents some of the most formally distinctive and critically recognized European cinema of the past three decades.

See Also

For how European co-production financing structures work at the highest level of the industry, see Documentary Financing: Building Your Stack. For how international sales agents participate in production financing alongside their sales activity, see Distribution Deals Explained.