Film & Television

Our Sydney film and television lawyers work with and assist many of Australia’s most successful and well-known films, documentaries, actors, producers and directors.

Michael Frankel has personally been closely associated with many of the most significant taxation, financial and copyright reforms that have underpinned the development of the Australian film industry. Principal among these was his involvement with the drafting of Australian taxation legislation for film investment and, introduction of Moral Rights legislation, performers protection reform, multimedia and internet communication reform among other developments.

Through the last 35 years and many hundreds of film and television projects, we are consistently sought to provide sound legal advice with respect to every stage of the film and television making process. These include:

• Development
• Rights acquisition
• Package assembly
• Funding and financing
• Pre-production
• Production
• Post production
• Licensing
• Distribution
• Sales rights exploitation
• Merchandising
• Ancillary rights exploitation
• Multimedia and new media exploitation
• Media aggregation
• Intellectual property and film litigation

In these processes we act for or have acted for clients in the following positions:

• Writers
• Actors
• Directors
• Producers and executive producers
• Crew
• DOPs and cinematographers
• Artists
• Managers
• Composers
• Recording engineers and record producers
• Distributors
• Content aggregators
• Cinemas and exhibitors
• Film and television production companies
• Merchant banks
• Australian broadcast institutions (for example, the ABC and SBS)
• Foreign broadcasters (in Italy, France and USA)
• Foreign distributors (in USA, UK, Italy, Canada, Hong Kong, and elsewhere)
• Australian Federal and state film authorities and funding bodies
• Investors, brokers, underwriters, performers

We represent foreign personnel and corporations, including in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, and other territories.

The firm litigates in Australia, and through its agents in Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the USA in Film and other Intellectual Property disputes. The firm has garnered a substantial reputation in the global entertainment industry through close relationships with several highly respected entertainment law specialists in the UK, Europe and the United States.

Through a 35 year recognised profile with film, television and media industry events and peak bodies we have a wealth of legal, industry and policy experience the quality of which is arguably unparalleled in law firms our size. An in-depth awareness of current industry policy and commercial developments has formed a cornerstone of the reputation we possess today in the film and television industry.