Luxembourg
Luxembourg's treaty with Canada is among the most recently ratified in the network — operative only since 2021 — but the bilateral relationship it formalised had been developing for nearly a decade before the treaty came into force, through the Canada Media Fund and Film Fund Luxembourg's joint co-development and co-production program, which has been running since 2012. The country's domestic production industry is disproportionate to its population of 700,000: a multilingual workforce (Luxembourgish, French, German, and English are all professional working languages within the industry), a central European location connecting the Belgian, French, and German production ecosystems, and a specific historical strength in animation have made Luxembourg a reliable minority co-production partner for productions across Europe. The Luxembourgish diaspora in Canada is negligible in size, and the corridor's interest is structural rather than cultural: Luxembourg offers a specific set of financial instruments and an animation-focused production capacity that is directly relevant to the kinds of projects the CMF has historically prioritised in its international programs.
The CMF-FFL bilateral incentive is the most directly Canada-specific instrument in the corridor. Jointly administered by the Canada Media Fund and Film Fund Luxembourg since 2012, the program supports co-development of television projects (fiction and animation), animated feature films, digital media, and co-production of XR, AR/VR, and transmedia projects. Applications are accepted once annually; the 7th edition (2024) had a December 3 deadline with investment decisions announced in January 2025. The March 2025 investment of $882,540 went to four projects: two animated productions at development stage (Welcome to Earth, Algorythme) and two XR productions at production stage (Ghost Ship, Whispering Forest). The program is narrow in scope — it is not a general live-action theatrical co-production fund — but has documented active use. The CIAV is a tax certificate mechanism rather than a direct cash rebate. Certificates are issued against qualifying Luxembourg production spend; production companies typically sell them on the open market to Luxembourg-based corporations for whom the deduction is more valuable. The mechanism is not directly accessible to a foreign producer without an experienced Luxembourg production partner.
Production in Luxembourg concentrates in and around Luxembourg City, which has the critical mass of production companies, the Film Fund offices, and post-production infrastructure. The country operates as a minority co-production hub rather than a primary shooting location — Luxembourg's comparatively limited location range and small crew base mean that most projects draw the bulk of their above-the-line and below-the-line resources from neighbouring countries, using the Luxembourgish financial contribution and the CIAV mechanism to anchor a European financing structure.
The production companies most active in international co-production cover distinct specialisations. Samsa Film is the largest and most broadly active company, with credits including Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, Austria-Germany-France-Luxembourg; Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Performance for Vicky Krieps, 2022; BFI London Film Festival Best Film 2022), Capitani (crime series, season 1 sold to Netflix), and Marginal (historical detective series, €3M FFL grant, Belgium-Luxembourg co-production). Tarantula Luxembourg operates across fiction, documentary, and XR, and coproduced Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Locarno Special Jury Prize, 2023) as Luxembourg minority partner. Les Films Fauves has coproduced Ama (Japan-France-Luxembourg) and Dora (July Jung, South Korea-France-Luxembourg; Quinzaine des cinéastes Cannes 2026), representing a consistent appetite for multi-territory fiction projects. Paul Thiltges Distributions operates as both production and distribution entity with international minority co-production credits including The Excursion (Serbia-Bulgaria-Italy-Croatia-Luxembourg).
The animation sector is where Luxembourg has built its most internationally recognised identity. Bidibul Productions coproduced Le Petit Nicolas — Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux? which won the Cristal du Long-Métrage at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Alexandre Espigares, whose work has been associated with Bidibul, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2014 for Mr Hublot — a Luxembourg-Swiss co-production. Mélusine Productions is a significant animation house with a track record in European animated features. Luxembourg had eight films in the Annecy 2025 official selection — a number that, for a country of 700,000 people, reflects a deliberately cultivated specialisation rather than accident. The FFL explicitly prioritises animation funding and the CIAV mechanism has historically been deployed most effectively for animation projects where the Luxembourg spend can be concentrated in post-production and finishing.
The Canada-Luxembourg bilateral relationship through the CMF-FFL program has produced documented projects in animation and digital media over seven annual editions since 2012, with Zeilt Production emerging as the Luxembourg company most consistently involved in Canadian-side collaborations. The program's most recent investment (March 2025) supported two animated projects and two XR productions — a profile that reflects both the CMF's digital media priorities and Luxembourg's specific production strengths.
Why this corridor
The CMF-FFL bilateral program is the most operationally accessible entry point into this corridor for Canadian producers — more so than the treaty itself, which has only been operative since 2021 and has not yet generated documented live-action theatrical co-productions. The program's scope (animation, television fiction, digital media, XR) is narrower than a general theatrical co-production treaty, but within that scope it is functioning: seven editions of documented investment, active Luxembourg production partners, and a known annual application cycle. For Canadian animation and digital media producers, the CMF-FFL program is an unusually direct bilateral pathway — a Canada-specific co-production fund with documented active use across seven annual editions.
The CIAV mechanism is worth understanding for any Canadian producer structuring a project with a Luxembourg minority partner, even outside the CMF-FFL program. A Luxembourg minority coproducer who can generate and trade CIAV certificates adds a financing layer that doesn't depend on the FFL's selective grant calendar — it is available for any production with meaningful Luxembourg spend. Navigating that mechanism requires an experienced Luxembourg production partner, which is the reason the FFL's producer directory is the practical starting point.
Where to start
If you're a researcher, student, or filmmaker interested in this corridor, here's where to begin.
Start here
Film Fund Luxembourg (filmfund.lu) is the administrative contact for both the AFS grant scheme and the CIAV certificate program, and administers the treaty on the Luxembourg side. The FFL's producer directory lists active Luxembourg production companies by genre specialisation — animation, fiction, documentary, XR — and is the most efficient starting point for identifying a potential co-production partner. For the CMF-FFL bilateral program specifically, the Canada Media Fund administers the Canadian side; their international incentives page lists annual deadlines and program guidelines.
For animation
The CMF-FFL bilateral program is the most direct entry point for Canadian animation producers. Zeilt Production and Bidibul Productions are the Luxembourg companies most active in the animation co-production space; both have documented credits with international partners. The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June, France — two hours from Luxembourg City) is the primary market where Luxembourg animation producers are present internationally and the most efficient place to initiate bilateral conversations. The FFL regularly organises animation co-production meetings in connection with Annecy, sometimes in collaboration with SODEC.
Canadian institutions
The Embassy of Canada in Brussels covers Luxembourg; there is no resident Canadian embassy in Luxembourg City. Telefilm Canada administers the treaty on the Canadian side. The Canada Media Fund administers the CMF-FFL bilateral program — their international incentives programme page lists the annual call and guidelines. SODEC has participated in FFL-organised animation co-production meetings, making it a relevant contact for Québec-based animation producers.
Cultural signal
Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, Samsa Film, 2022) — Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Performance for Vicky Krieps — is the clearest recent signal of what the Luxembourg production ecosystem can support at the prestige fiction level: an Austrian-directed historical drama with a Luxembourg minority partner that moved through Cannes, TIFF, and the BFI London Film Festival and reached international distribution. For animation, the Annecy Cristal awarded to Le Petit Nicolas illustrates the register at which Bidibul Productions operates.If you're a Luxembourg producer with animation or digital media experience interested in the Canadian bilateral relationship — or a Canadian producer exploring the CMF-FFL program or the broader bilateral structure — we'd like to hear from you.
contact@rubedo.ca