Hey all — I’ll be speaking at Stage 32’s “Art of the Deal - Innovative Financing for Indie Filmmakers” panel at Cannes this year, focused on creative financing strategies for indie filmmakers.
Curious to know — what burning questions do you have around raising capital, international presales, working with financiers, or navigating tax credits? I’d love to tailor my portion of the panel around what matters most to the community.
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This is such an exciting topic, Grady Craig, and incredibly valuable for so many indie filmmakers navigating the realities of funding their projects. One big question I hear often in the Stage 32 community is: How can newer filmmakers position themselves as low-risk investments to financiers when they don’t yet have a track record?
That would be great to bring up during the panel, but if you have any advice to share here in the meantime, we’d love to hear it as well!
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That's a great question!
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Grady Craig what effect would Trump’s tariffs on non-US produced films have on European films? What effect will it have on European tax incentives for films partly produced in the US?
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Hi Grady, I'd love to hear about structuring a project for negative pickup and whether that is still possible for sub-$1M projects. Thanks so much!
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A film financier from Philly -- be still my heart :-) I'd like to know the latest on presales -- they've waned, but seem to be on the rise again? What moves the needle on presales? Bankable names seem to be an off-bet with names like Pierce Brosnan being in demand. So, in short, "the art of presales."
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As a producer that has multiple projects at various stages of completion, post, pre, devel.... I think there are so many weird game changers and expectations...it's become impossible to predict with any certainty any trusted route to success. If you are creating authentic story telling and have a committed team of grounded artists...with some "names" mixed in (sadly sometimes) ...I think that you are in a position of strength BUT... I will always wonder how to spark FIRST MONEY IN ... anyone?????
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Toni D'Antonio development funding as you know, is probably the riskiest phase of any production, so we are looking to raise 5% of the budget and will offer the investor all their money back, plus a 30% premium, on the first day of principal photography. Hope that helps...
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Thanks Geoff Hall . Yes... structuring the deal for first money in/first money out with the premium us always a good idea for that first seed money. I like that and do use that in practice
. It's RAISING even that first 5%, which yes is the riskiest, and so very difficult to get that first trigger pulled. Have you come up with any other incentives/ideas for risk mitigation for your first money in people?
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Toni D'Antonio incentives? Well, there's the 30% premium! ;-) and also non-financial benefits, to give them a whole experience of a film being produced and exhibited.
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Geoff Hall I'm not sure we know enough about how the Trump tariffs would work in practice. His intentions are good: to bring film production back to the United States, but with high costs in the US (union requirements etc.), it often makes indie film untenable, hence the need for filmmakers to seek out the best incentives and the cheapest labor, often abroad. I'm not sure tariffs are the right tool to accommodate US production, at least in the independent realm, though studios seem to be the true target. A federal incentive would be nice! :-D
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Michael Fitzer Yes, it's still possible and we continue to finance sub-$1M minimum guarantees / negative pickups. The distributors offering to pre-buy projects at this level are typically: Marvista, BET, Tubi, Hallmark, Allblk, Shudder, Shout, Viacom, Grindstone, Saban, Vertical, Quiver, Brainstorm, etc.
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Laurie Ashbourne Go Birds!
Pre-selling has been finicky the last 12-18 months, but remains a prevalent + core strategy for greenlighting indie production. Bankable names are constantly changing, so what worked last year likely doesn't work this year. There is also the risk of actors over-saturating themselves by participating in too many features, audiences grow fatigued, and sales value drops. The key to pre-sales, as Toni pointed out, is building the foundation on a high-quality, commercial script. International pre-sales, specifically, are mostly viable for genres that transcend language barriers (action, horror, thriller, sci-fi). Cultural nuances can sometimes limit dramas or comedies.
From there, it's about keeping the ensemble 'fresh' with exciting new talent (think Bella Ramsay) while anchoring a recognizable name (think Pierce Brosnan) whose been on the cover of a poster before.
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Go Birds, Laurie Ashbourne and Grady Craig!
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Toni D'Antonio First money is often the hardest to secure and I think Geoff made a great point that seems to work for him. While money talks, you don't always need capital to get a project greenlit. We finance ~5-10 projects per year where BondIt's loan against pre-sales and a tax credit is 100% of the finance plan. To make this happen, you need (a) a good script, (b) a reputable producer, (c) a strong director and (d) a bankable actor, and often in this order. Distributors, sales agents, financiers, and talent agencies, will take a closer look, offer more flexibility, and take chances on teams that have a track record and they can trust in their execution. That's why even crappy scripts can get made, so long as that script was enough to convince a producer, director, or actor to come aboard, then their attachment alone may suffice to trigger further advancement and greenlight.
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Love that comment that 'even crappy scripts can get made'...so if you don't understand business, but just write well...forget about it. What do you do if your mind doesn't work like a salesperson's?
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Thanks Grady Craig . Nice to chat with you here. Thanks for all the great information. And yes... all those things DEF matter and are super relevant for getting people to come on board a project. We've been positioning ourselves more and more with this kind of packaging and are certainly making more progress than before implementing this model. And sad but true about "even crappy scripts can get made". Sends a lot of my writer's and myself down a nasty rabbit hole of "WTF?" Who actually read that and was like "Yeah, let's put money in THAT?" Such a dog and pony show sometimes. But we all keep going back for more because inherently... WE WANT TO TELL GOOD STORIES and will keep trying at the top of our lungs. :) Tariffs...no tariffs... incentives...no incentives. None of us are heading out of the game any time soon. BY THE WAY... anyone heading to Cannes next week?
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Jon Shallit Try to bring on a producer with capital structuring expertise, or as you say "a salesperson's" mind. Your core team should complement each other... I'll be the first to admit that I'd benefit from a strong creative / writing companion, as I haven't exercised those skills nearly as much over the years!
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With so much talk about budgets and pre-sales, few people talk about the actual business plan needed to secure investors. I see templates online but what would you suggest is the most important things to focus on when making a film business plan that would make financing most feasible?