Goldcrest featured in Screen Daily's "Who's Got the Money?"
14 May, 2009By Geoffrey Macnab
"Private equity money is in short supply and there are few remaining ways in which individuals can invest in film and use tax to mitigate their downside. Still, UK financiers such as Prescience Film Finance, Future Films and Goldcrest are adjusting to changing times. Some even see an upside. In downturns, so popular wisdom has it, people still go to see films. The box office is on the rise, year on year, in both the US and the UK. This is the message financiers are trying to drum into potential investors.
One increasingly prominent player is Goldcrest Film Finance. Its most recent fund is an EIS structure called Goldcrest Film Production LLP. This aims to support British films budgeted from $4.5m (£3m) to $10.5m (£7m). Its advisory board includes ex-PolyGram boss Michael Kuhn and leading producers Graham Broadbent and David Parfitt. The fund will provide 20% of a film’s budget and through its relationships with Goldcrest Independent and sister company Goldcrest Post Production, there are further financing and sales opportunities for the projects it backs.
“I am very excited by the British industry at the moment,” says Adam Kulick, partner at Goldcrest Film Finance LLP. “We’re coming off some fantastic successes that were ratified at the Oscars. Sterling is weaker than it used to be, which will encourage more films to shoot here. What we’re aiming to do is help harness the deep talent pool we have in this country.”