founded in 1987 by philippe bober, the company was named after its efforts to raise funds for "europa" by lars von trier (jury prize at cannes in 1991). "europa" was a four-country coproduction and was supported by eurimages during its very first session in 1989 and bober acted as associate producer for germany and france. for von trier's following project, "the kingdom", coproduction office was involved both as german co-producer and international seller, closing deals in territories where the 4 hours television series was distributed theatrically (by usa films, formerly october films in the u.s.; ica projects in the united kingdom; haut et cour in france; shochiku in japan, key films in italy or essential films in germany, the then newly created, berlin-based production arm of coproduction office). in 1996, after producing breaking the waves for the joint production venture libérator productions with zentropa, according to variety bober was one of the first professionals to handle scandinavian films: the company established ongoing relationships with swedish directors roy andersson and ruben östlund and produced the film "nói albinói" by dagur kári together with iceland's zik zak filmworks.