How To Finance Indie Films In The Age Of The Streamers? – Deadline

This year’s Zurich Summit started with a bang as a host of the industry’s top executives gathered on stage to discuss one of the most challenging issues facing the independent film world today – how to finance an independent film in streaming. Age?

The panel was inevitably drawn to the ins and outs of streaming.

Former Lionsgate film executive Patrick Wachsberger, who recently served as producer on the Oscar-winning hit KODA, spoke at length about the challenges he faced in funding the project. The Pathé title was a project he helped develop at Lionsgate and took with him when he left the US studio. The film had been pre-sold in a number of international territories, but famously caused a stir when Apple walked in and acquired the film from Sundance for $25 million in a worldwide deal, prompting the streamer to strike buyback deals with these rightsholders.

“We needed equity, the film’s budget was $14 million,” he said. “There was a pandemic, there was no theatrical market at all and we were chosen to go to Sundance — we needed it,” he said. “The film was in the can.”

When asked if this film would have worked theatrically and won the Best Picture Oscar if it had continued under 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 Babysitters Club for Netflix and finch for Apple TV+, recognized some of the obstacles facing the independent film world.

“The challenge we face now with streaming is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to find places to put my capital,” Smith said. “I’m trying to put together many different types of films right now and I’m trying different avenues, but the streamers aren’t necessarily that interested. You’re either interested in paying for it and owning it, or if you’re lucky you can get a cost-plus deal, but it’s getting harder and harder.”

Christine Vachon of Killer Films, producer of Carol and Still Aliceinsisted that indie film funding “has become so bespoke that very few companies can actually thread those tiny little needles” that are required to get indie projects off the ground.

“The streamers, that’s a bigger discussion because it’s about ownership and longevity and evergreens and your copyright and your role,” Vachon said. She pointed to projects she licensed 25 years ago that now have value and reincarnation in the streaming world. “The French saying ‘the more it changes, the more it stays the same’ is very true. But we are dealing with some new challenges that are certainly time-specific.”

Alex Brunner of the UTA Independent Group agreed with this assessment and pointed to the project Mrs. Harris goes to Paris as an example of an indie title that has recently worked with the old cornerstone financial elements that have sustained the business for so long. The British-Hungarian co-production received tax refunds and was pre-sold to Focus Features as part of a promotion.

“The structure that we’ve all played with for the last several decades still pops up sometimes because it’s still exactly what you need,” he said.

Emilie Georges, CEO of distribution company Memento International and production company Paradise City, had a clearer view of the indie opportunities in the streaming world: “Streamers aren’t the target of a lot of the indie films that we work on,” she said. “There is no way that streamers can get offers to finance films like e.g call me by your name or finance [directors like] Anthony Chen or Asghar Farhadi.”

Interestingly, this was disputed by a Netflix delegate in the audience: Sasha Buhler, Director EMEA Film for Netflix, countered that Netflix is ​​indeed a place where these directors could find a home. “Collaborating with the streamers certainly has its perks — I’m from the independent world, so I understand that people want their films in theaters.” She added, “I would argue that Netflix has a lot of theatrical releases.”

Georges pointed to an “interesting influx” of new companies she has worked with in independent film financing that are “taking all the risks”. Meanwhile, she said, the traditional model of pre-selling a title is becoming increasingly difficult.

However, Frank Smith pointed out that the appetite for content has never been greater, saying streamers provided a great home for projects that had previously been rejected in the indie world.

“We’ve got projects right now that have been in development for 15 years – things, Patrick [Wachsberger] passed on – which are made,” he said.

Smith added, “It’s a great time for products. But as a financier it’s more problematic in that right now I can’t make a $19 million movie that makes $200 or $300 million at the box office and have a cash cow that covers my losses on these other movies covers. It’s getting tougher and the profit margins are tighter.”