Cannes Market Dailies

For the past 70 years Hollywood has been serviced by a niche community of private banks and financial groups who traditionally put up the capital to finance Film and TV productions. Using technology, FilmHedge streamlines the media finance process and captures an unprecedented amount of data in the process. For example, they provide real time analytics on how producers utilize money to investors, something that reduces accounting errors or fraud. The FilmHedge platform also automates the disbursement of funds on both ends, to borrowers (typically Producers), and also back to investors once their returns have been realized.

FilmHedge is an alternative lender that provides short term financing (up to 12 months) to Producers. They determine the terms for loan offers based on the borrowers sufficiently securing (or collateralizing) the loan. Forms of collateral include media agreements (distribution agreements, pre-sales, tax credits etc.) or traditional assets (high-value equipment, vehicles, personal net worth, or corporate balance sheet). 

Based in Atlanta, FilmHedge was founded by CEO, Jon Gosier. Jon is a software developer, investor, and philanthropist. He pursued technology entrepreneurship after college, but he always had a passion and interest in film. Gosier explained how “I went to Savannah College of Art and Design for college but I was always intimidated by the financial part so I never really pursued a career in it.” 

Instead, Jon went into tech where he built a number of successful companies over the past decade. In recognition of his accomplishments in tech, Jon was named as one of the “25 most influential African-Americans in Technology” by Business Insider. He was also awarded a TED Fellowship (2009) and later named a TED Senior Fellow (2012).

In 2017, after selling his previous tech company, Audigent, he finally decided to use this money to get into the film finance industry. He started by funding a couple of independent movies as an individual executive producer where he discovered how inefficient and niche the process was. He knew it was only a matter of time before tech companies disrupted the industry. Soon, FilmHedge was born.

When asked what makes FilmHedge work so well, Jon stated, “We solve problems on the financial side first. We make putting money into media safer, faster, and more reliable for investors. As a result we’re able to operate as a lender and financier. Producers will always need money, what media investors need are assurances.” 

FilmHedge styles itself as a more modern version of traditional financial institutions, as it is all technology and data-based. The company prides itself on its strong economics, experienced media finance team, and lending model. 

They typically take on film projects with total budgets between $1 million and $50 million or TV projects. Additionally, they look for projects that have one or more of the following in place: pre-sales, tax credits, sales agent, minimum guarantee, distribution agreement, or an agreement with a streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.) 

“What matters to us most is the financial plan,” he continued. “We look at media deals much like a bank would look at a real-estate deal.”

Since 2019, the FilmHedge team has raised $100M and financed 14 movies. The company is now seeing increased demand for its financial products. Incredibly, 3% of all productions shooting in the state of Georgia (where FilmHedge is headquartered and the #1 film production market in the world) now pursue funding through FilmHedge monthly. Globally, the company is seeing even more demand with $30-40M in monthly loan applications to review.

The ultimate goal for FilmHedge is to improve the Film/TV financing process for all. They want producers to have access to capital and want investors to be able to rely on returns with greater financial transparency. They are building a software company that simplifies the media finance process. Eventually, they hope to expand beyond Film/TV to other areas of media.

For more information on FilmHedge please visit https://filmhedge.com