This year’s Zurich Summit kicked off with a bang as a host of industry executives gathered on stage to discuss one of the most challenging topics facing the world of independent film today: How to finance an independent film in the age of streaming?
Inevitably, the panel was drawn to the pros and cons of going the transmission route.
Former Lionsgate film chief Patrick Wachsberger, who most recently produced the Oscar-winning hit CODE, spoke at length about the challenges he faced in financing the project. The Pathé title was a project he helped develop at Lionsgate and took with him when he left the American studio. The film had previously been sold in several international territories, but it caused quite a stir when Apple swooped in and acquired the film at Sundance for $25 million in a worldwide deal, making the streamer enter into buyback agreements with such rights holders.
“We needed capital, the budget for the film was $14 million,” he said. “There was a pandemic, there was no theatrical market, and we were selected to go to Sundance, we needed it,” he said. “The movie was in the can.”
When asked if this film would have worked in theaters if it had continued with the traditional presale model, he replied “I don’t know.”
Frank Smith, president and CEO of Walden Media, who has a strong track record of working with streamers and studios, having recently produced The Kangaroo Club for Netflix and Finch for Apple TV+, he also acknowledged the obstacles facing the independent film world.
“The challenges we’re facing now with streaming is that it’s getting harder and harder for me to find places to deploy my capital,” Smith said. “I’m trying to put together a lot of different types of movies right now and I’m trying different ways to do it, but streamers aren’t necessarily that interested. They’re interested in paying for it and owning it or, if you have the luckily, you can get a more cost-effective deal, but it’s getting harder and harder.”
Christine Vachon of Killer Films, producer of Carol i Still Aliceinsisted that independent film financing has become “so tailor-made that very few companies can thread those tiny, tiny needles” that are needed to get independent projects off the ground.
“Streamers, that’s a bigger discussion because it’s about ownership and longevity and perennials and your copyright and what your role is,” Vachon said. He noted that the projects he had graduated 25 years ago now have value and a reincarnation in the world of broadcasting. “This French proverb that “the more it changes, the more it stays the same” is very true. But we are facing new challenges that are, without a doubt, specific to the era.”
UTA Independent Group’s Alex Brunner agreed with that sentiment and noted the project Mrs. Harris is going to Paris as an example of an indie title that had recently worked with the old financial fundamentals that have supported the business for so long. The British-Hungarian co-production accessed tax breaks and was pre-sold to Focus Features on a promotional basis.
“The structure that we’ve all been playing with for the last few decades still comes up sometimes because it’s still exactly what you need,” he said.
Emilie Georges, managing director of sales team Memento International and producer Paradise City, had a stronger view of indie opportunities in the streaming world: “Streamers are not the target of many of the independent films that we work on,” he said. “There is no way to submit bids to streamers to fund films like call me by your name or finance [directors like] Anthony Chen or Asghar Farhadi.”
Interestingly, this was discussed by a Netflix delegate in the audience: Sasha Buhler, director of EMEA Film at Netflix, countered that Netflix was indeed a place where these directors could find a home. “There are certainly advantages to working with streamers – I come from the independent world, so I understand that people want to have their films in cinemas.” He added: “I would say Netflix has a lot of theatrical movies.”
Georges noted an “interesting influx” of new companies he’s been working with in the independent film financing space that “are taking all the risks.” Meanwhile, he said, the traditional model of pre-selling a title was becoming more and more difficult.
However, Frank Smith pointed to the fact that the appetite for content has never been better and said that streamers have emerged as a great home for projects that were previously rejected in the indie world.
“We have projects right now that have been 15 years in the making, Patrick stuff [Wachsberger] transmitted, which are being done,” he said.
Smith added, “It’s a good time for the product. But financially, it’s more problematic because right now I can no longer make a $19 million movie that makes $200 million or $300 million at the box office and to have a cash cow to cover my losses on these other films. It’s getting tougher and the profit margins are more fixed.”
