New Entrance to the Film Industry

May 15, 2025 CFM Daily, Festival, Financing 0

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CANNES May 15, 2025 - Billionaires and companies in industries ranging from property to tourism are jumping into the film industry and their positions could be part of the sustainable infrastructure of the film business in the future, says Micah Green, Co-Head of Film Finance at Creative Artists Agency at a forum presented by Winston Baker. Reported by Hua Yang.

Ten years ago, those high-profile individuals who were financing films were largely doing them out of personal interests and passion. They were just using their wealth to make films more interesting to them or to work with talents they liked.

Now things have changed. “Today we can see that a lot of film partners and companies, perhaps backed by wealthy individuals, are deploying much more sophisticated strategies to invest in a slate of films instead of making choices based their own preferences,” says Green, citing that the majority of the academy-winning films in the past five years are financed by the independent financiers.

Bill Lischak, Co-President of OddLot Entertainment, believes the trend is giving opportunities to those who are really interested in the arts and entertainment sections, which is a very meaningful way for the film development.

Talking about the focus of the new money, Green notes that for their business, about half are budget movies that are between $20 million to $40 million, usually with experienced directors and A-list stars. The second popular ones are platform films between $6 million to $15 million, like THE IMITATION GAME. And about one third are old-fashioned, Sundance type films, which could hardly see any new independent financiers rushing into them.

However, Lischak warns that for new comers, they need to take management seriously. “I have seen people not even thinking about the distribution, which is one of the real keys. It shocks me to see people entering the business without having a clear path to monetize the investment.”

He notes that getting close to the distribution part is critical on the production side, no matter it is just an understanding of the distribution arrangements, having a way into the distribution companies, or something more formalized like taking an equity stake in a distribution company.

“To succeed, you need to have a clear idea of what it is that you want to do, why you want to be in the business and what the plan is. Those who don’t could hardly survive. That’s why we see people jumping in and jumping out all the time,” Lischak explains.

Meanwhile, he suggests that for filmmakers, it’s always best to keep a healthy degree of skepticism regarding the new money. “There is no question that independent financiers are playing an increasingly important role, but the money they promised is not always delivered, sometimes it is only big talk,” he says.

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