The 10th Strategic Partners international co-production market, held every year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, continued its decade long tradition as North America’s premier mini-market where the uniquely small and intimate environment allows film and television producers, investors, broadcasters, and distributors from all over the world to pitch and plan new film & television projects.

More countries than ever participated in this year’s market, September 14-16, 2007, including delegates from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, France, The Netherlands, South Africa, and Australia.

Key attendees included Kent Kubena of 2929 Entertainment, Mark Musselman of Serendipity Point/ Maximum Films, Sara Rose of Picturehouse and Pen Densham of Trilogy Entertainment.

Christine Shipton of Canwest Mediaworks announced while attending SP two years ago that Simon Vaughn of Alchemy (UK), Tom Cox of SEVEN24 Films, and CanWest Global initiated a project around global oil issues that has led to the production of "Burn Up", a four hour mini-series originally developed by Kudos Film & Television and now a Canada/UK treaty co-production between Kudos and SEVEN 24 with Alchemy distributing and the BBC and CanWest Global broadcasting in the UK and Canada. Neve Campbell is slated to star, along with Rupert Penry-Jones.

Candid discussions and debate from industry insiders highlighted the panels, including Tiers of Joy moderated by Bankside Films Phil Hunt, executive producer of "Shake Hands With the Devil", which opened the Atlantic Film Festival. Hunt pitched a real project to his panel of diverse financing partners including Qwesi Dickson from Future Films, Ashley Luke from Fortissimo Films, Adrian Ward from Israel Discount Bank of New York, Arsam's CEO, Ilann Girard and Susie Hock from BBC Films to theoretically have them agree to not only fund the project but also agree to a recoupment schedule.

Bertrand Faivre, co-producer of the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated film Joyeux Noel and producer of the film The Warrior that won two BAFTA Awards including Best British Film delivered the Opening keynote entitled “Don’t Get Bigger, Get Better.” Georges Campana , from Paris-based Breakout Films and more than 800 hours of film and television to his credit, delivered a second strong keynote, ‘‘Co-Pro Pre Nups : Co-production Pre-nuptials .”

Last year Strategic Partners reported an economic impact of (CD) $181 million. This year’s production numbers promise to be even greater. “It is so, so exciting to see projects take off like this,” SP Director Jan Miller said. “It’s like courtship, marriage, and waiting for your first born all in one weekend!”