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In a first for the Zurich Summit, a slew of investors joined a panel to share what they look for when it comes to financing movies. AC Independent head Nick Shumaker, producer Marie-Christine Jaeger-Firmenich, Tango Entertainment principal Lia Buman and Sovereign Media Capital CEO Andreas Roald all sat down for a lengthy panel to assess investments and what an ideal ROI looks like to them.
Shumaker told delegates that Anonymous Content “historically has been very focused on director-driven content for the last twenty years so when we pivoted to deploy capital into films about three years ago, we had a nice foundation to be able to use the relationships we have with directors historically and producers historically to try and find investments that helped.”
“On the nonfiction side, we do the same thing, and that market has changed considerably in the last three years. On the narrative side, our focus primarily has been on European co-productions and working with our partners in Europe to find ways to collaborate with them to get more money on the screen.”
Producer Marie-Christine Jaeger-Firmenich spoke about her entry into the film industry. The Swiss native created Foundation Robmar to pursue her interest in philanthropy and it was during her work with a charity that supports works to train animals to help disabled people, that inspired her first production Gigi & Nate, which she exec produced.
“I had absolutely no idea about the film business,” she told delegates. “It was around 2014, and I was searching for someone to make this movie. I had the idea and thought we needed a few cameras, a few people, a few actors and then I’m done. But I discovered it’s a very different business.
After meeting Nick Hamm at a dinner, she recalled telling the director about her idea and said: “Nick looked at me and I think at the moment, if he could have killed me with his eyes, he would have done, probably think I was another woman who thought she knew the film business.”
Ultimately Hamm would go on to direct that project Gigi & Nate. Hamm is also in town in Zurich promoting his latest collaboration with Jaeger-Firmenich, William Tell, an epic story of the Swizterland folk hero with cast including Claes Bang, Ben Kingsley, Emily Beecham among others.
Speaking of goals on return to investment, Shumaker said: “Not to be flippant, but the first goal is not to lose money so then you can continue to invest. It’s not that profound but it’s a tricky process. We enter projects pretty much at any time from pre-production to something remidial where there was a necessity for a little bit of capital before the premiere of the film about two or three months before.”
Shumaker continued that the “standard is 20 to 25% – that’s what we base our financial models off of.”
“For us I look at it as three different ways to have ROI and one of them is don’t lose the money and make some so you can keep going,” said Lia Buman of Tango Entertainment, who has worked across projects such as Aftersun and His Three Daughters. “But for the first one, really it’s all about people. It has to be a positive experience that the film that you come out with is the film you intended to make. Part of the joy of independent filmmaking is how hard it is and how you like being in the trenches with the people that you respect.”
Buman added that for their ROI “we tend to go a little bit more that 20% because of the cost of money…and how intense it all is to be putting money into a movie that oculd take two plus years to get that money back – you really have to think about it.”
She continued: “The third ROI for me is how well it connects with audiences…that’s what film means to me – connectivity.”
