What's the CoO on this film? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366627/
And also what to enter in the studios field. It opens with "Mandalay pictures presents" and I added Mandalay as first studio. Then the next words on the screen reads: " a vip medienfonds 2 / vip medienfonds 3 / mp pictures gmbh co-production in association with rising star" Out from this I presume the CoO would be Germany? Correct me if I'm wrong. But what about all those studios? Is medienfonds a trust/company that has the money? I'm confused about that...
a little quick her. Then it reads "a Section eight production"

Generally, I'd say we don't expect the general contributor to be able to differentiate between real "production" and "funding-only" companies (in many cases this will be near-impossible to figure out), meaning that "XXX presents an YYY / ZZZ production" generally means that we would enter XXX, YYY and ZZZ, even though there's more ("in association with Rising Star" and later on "a Section eight production").

I do think I'd use the final "a Section eight production" credit as the reason to list the CoO as USA.

For finding out the main production company, I usually check for the producers.
Fundraisers scarcely send one.
So the company, the first producers (not "execs") named in the credits work for, defines the CoO.
There are exceptions I know, but as a general guideline I think it's good enough

Quoting T!M:

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As a general guideline, I don't think the DVD Profiler users should be burdoned by having to research which companies the film's producers work for.

So, to make it a bit less general, you think that for the example given above, the CoO "Germany" would be correct?
Even though the only German part in this film was raising funds?

To be a bit more precise about my "general guideline", in most cases I would agree with you, but these are the cases that wouldn't cause any problems either way. If it's a "Jerry Bruckheimer Films"-production, I wouldn't even take a look at the producers, before I come to entering the crew-data.

But in the a bit more complicated cases (like the one in the example), it must be allowed to correct the CoO (provided that there's enough documentation to be found) and in cases where there's no distinct answer, even leave it blank.

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting goblinsdoitall:

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Quoting T!M:

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As a general guideline, I don't think the DVD Profiler users should be burdoned by having to research which companies the film's producers work for.

So, to make it a bit less general, you think that for the example given above, the CoO "Germany" would be correct?
Even though the only German part in this film was raising funds?

No, as I said earlier, the final "a Section Eight production" credit would tell me that's the principal production company, so I'd use their country of origin. I just don't think I'd enter "Section Eight" as a studio, simply because others are named first and there's no room left. Rather than pick and choose which ones to enter, I'd be inclined to list the companies in the order in which they appear - no matter whether I felt that some of them are just "funding" companies. But again, I would use the final "a Section Eight production" for determining the CoO.

Even though I agree with you in the result (CoO = USA), I have some difficulties following your logic.
The first company that gets a "an XYZ-production" is the german VIP Medienfonds 2, the production only appears at the end of the listing of three "production"-companies (all located in Germany). Your pick "Section Eight" only appears as associated production company.
With my choice you'd go over "Peter Guber" as producer,
which is the CEO of Mandalay, which without any reasonable doubt is an US-American company.
Bingo

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting goblinsdoitall:

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With my choice you'd go over "Peter Guber" as producer,
which is the CEO of Mandalay, which without any reasonable doubt is an US-American company.
Bingo

Yeah, but isn't Mandalay the theatrical release studio here (I'm just going by the information as supplied by bentyman in his first post - correct me if I'm wrong)? And the rules direct us to use the CoO of the principal production company, not of the theatrical release studio.

OK,
in this case we'd go over Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, the founders of "Section Eight". CoO remains USA.
You see we agree in the result, it's just that your way in some cases (like this) gives inconclusive results, or I misunderstood you completely.
EDIT: Mine will surely give inconclusive results in other cases, that's why I called it a guideline (which is not to be followed blindly, but taken into consideration when things seem to be strange) [end EDIT]

If I understood you correctly, you determine the main production company by the first company that gets an "a XYZ production"-credit. Correct?

EDIT: The other question that springs to mind (but is more directed to the writer of the credits): How can a company that sends a producer be "only" the "theatrical release studio"?

Quoting T!M:

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but I just have a hard time calling this a German film.

Yupp (me too),
and in cases like this ... check for the producers.
At least they give you a good argument.

Next thing is that someone comes up with LotR being a German production, just because the copyright is being held by a German company.