Berlin: Films get Backup

Backup Media Group, a Paris-based film working as a consultant and investor, is preparing the B Media Global film fund targeted at non-French movies. A tax vehicle sourcing high-internet-worth people in France plus debt finance, B Media Global invested in foreign movies, supplying gap finance. The fund invested against films' worldwide sales. Generally, B Media Global will require equity positions on movies within the a million to fifteen million ($1.3 million to $19.7 million) range, Backup partner Joel Thibout stated at Berlin. Included in this are U.S. indie photos allocated at $3 million to $ten million and upper midlevel European films within the $1.3 million to $19.7 million bracket. Thibout stated Backup seemed to be thinking about the greater in a commercial sense ambitious Latin American films now being made. In France, Backup has typically set up 5% to 10% of the film's budget in completion finance. But investment on films could increase to 40%, based on budget and collateral, Thibout stated. "B Media Global is not such as the Sofica schemes we run in France, however it solutions exactly the same needs because they do for French-being approved films in France," Thibout stated. Introduced in 1985, a Sofica (Societe pour le Financement du Cinema et p l'Audiovisuel) is really a public limited firms that functions as investment fund to invest in films authorized by the CNC, in france they National Film Center. Unlike Sofica, B Media Global will have the ability to have a position inside a film after it's begun production, he added. Itwill begin to purchase films in the Cannes Festival. It'll fund around five movies this year, then 10-15 annually. Other funds already provide gap investment for films but couple of have Backup's physical span. Backup's transfer to foreign film financing is really a logical growth step. Through B Media Export and B Media Kids, the 2 latest-generation Sofica schemes run by its investment arm B Media Management, Backup already works carefully with Paris-based sales representatives, lending for their French films against foreign sales revenues. Paris is becoming an worldwide film production and purchasers company hub, Thibout stated. However, many French sales representatives handle as numerous foreign as French films. B Media Global enables Backup to purchase both, carrying out to some film simultaneously as sales agents' pick-ups. As national industries be ambitious in Asia and South America, there's additionally a growing requirement for B Media-style finance as well as an ever-bigger quantity of films that justify it. "This is an exciting prospect. Whenever you measure the worldwide sales prospect of the film, it should not matter whether it's French or American. B Media Global enables Backup to purchase films, whatever their nationality," Thibout stated. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com