 An example of such pan-European coproductions was "Treasure Island" (1972), a British-French-German-Italian-Spanish film, starring US Orson Welles.To qualify as an Italian film a film needed either an Italian director or cameraman plus at least two Italian featured players and an Italian film laboratory to process the film.Actor and director Mel Welles recalled that in the 1960s and 1970s the government of Spain would give producers funds based on the budget of the film whilst Italy would give producers funds based on the box office results of the film, however the government could interfere with production if they chose to

The first European nations to sign a film co-production agreement were France and Italy in 1949.