Building sustainable film businesses: the challenges for industry

3.4

Strong, dynamic leadership 

In this context, we mean strategic leadership 

with a clear, corporate vision of how the business 

should be developed. In our work with clients we 

have noticed the frequency with which successful 

companies are led by individuals with experience  

of the generic issues associated with company 

growth and expansion. 

Most film production companies are owned, 

managed and run by creative individuals whose 

principal talents and experience lie in the business 

of bringing individual film projects to fruition.  

It is not always the case that these same  

individuals will have the knowledge and experience 

to push forward the company’s growth because 

these are essentially different skills. They may  

reside in the individual who also has ‘project’ talent, 

but not necessarily.

A key recommendation to any film business 

with ambitions for sustainability therefore is to 

secure experienced entrepreneurial leadership. As 

explained above, this does not necessarily have to 

be embodied in the owner of the company. It could 

be a senior member of the management team, or 

even an outside adviser, who is given the task of 

devising and delivering a growth strategy, rather 

than addressing project-related issues. 

If these skills cannot be found within the permanent 

management team, another way of achieving this 

is to appoint a non-executive director, to sit on 

the company board, with the sole remit of driving 

the business towards investment-readiness. The 

right individual might have a background in 

corporate finance, or in senior management with 

a larger company, even from an unrelated sector, 

but crucially will have an understanding of (and 

solid connections with) sources of investment. 

Remuneration for this non-executive director might 

be performance-related, based on his or her success 

at achieving that investment.

3.5

International and corporate  

business relationships  

Another key success factor lies in the nature of 

the business and corporate relationships that 

a company enjoys. Our research shows that 

companies with the strongest international links 

tend to thrive, particularly if those networks include 

larger businesses which are run on more corporate 

lines. It appears that film entrepreneurs who are 

involved in these types of business relationships 

tend to build strong links, over time, with a few of 

them and this can lead to more permanent financial, 

corporate alliances.

This key success factor is not surprising: after all, 

the film business is one of the most global of any 

creative economy sector. Just about any film from 

a mature filmmaking country will have realistic 

ambitions to make an impact in the international 

market. The costly nature of creating the film asset, 

and the probability that the domestic market will 

not be sufficient, for most independent films, to 

fund the project by itself, had led to an increase 

in international co-productions

1

. The emergence 

of new countries as significant film markets also 

reflects the internationalisation of the business. 

Therefore the key relationships for a film business 

might mostly be with trade partners operating 

internationally, providing access to or funding from, 

global markets, and often based in other countries.

Section 3.0  

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  Success factors for building sustainable 

                               film businesses

1.

 For most countries – the UK being an exception because of the way 

it’s Film Tax Credit is structured.

Building sustainable film businesses:

the challenges for industry and government

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3.6

A supportive and consistent public 

policy environment 

Other than in Hollywood and the Indian film 

industry (‘Bollywood’), most countries with film 

industries operate a supportive public sector 

investment strategy. The reasons why this support 

is provided are multiple – cultural, social and 

economic – and are examined in detail in the 

following chapter.

It is certainly necessary, for a company to have a 

chance to become sustainable, to exist within a 

system that provides support that is consistent and 

reliable and operating at a level that is substantial 

enough to really make a difference. For an 

independent company to work in an environment 

without this type of support decreases the potential 

to develop a robust growth strategy. This is in part 

because the nature of the production business 

model – high risk/potential high reward – requires 

the ability to operate in a predictable system over 

the long term. This reflects the fact that the process 

of development and production itself can and does 

take many years for individual projects. 

Some examples are included in the Appendices of 

support structures in a small selection of countries 

that largely meet the criteria of consistency and 

reliability, and size. These are Australia, Brazil, France, 

Germany, Singapore, Sweden and the UK and a 

commentary is included in each case on some of the 

variables that contribute to this sense of reliability 

and consistency. These include the overall approach 

to public support to be found in each country; the 

nature of that support at national and regional 

levels, and the role broadcasters play in the sector. 

Of course there are dozens of other countries (and 

regions) that also fit the criteria discussed above. 

The purpose of this report is not to provide a 

comprehensive analysis of support mechanisms, but 

we do apologise for leaving out the very many other 

examples of supportive and consistent systems that 

exist around the world.

3.7

Having more than a fair share of luck!

The term ‘independent producer’ is in many ways 

a misnomer. A more accurate description might 

be ‘dependent producer’ because so many factors 

involved in a film’s production and distribution  are 

out of the producer’s control. Bad weather can derail 

the shooting schedule; illness can delay production; 

an expensive piece of equipment could malfunction 

or be destroyed. Even when the film is ready to be 

distributed, a big Hollywood blockbuster might shift 

its release date directly opposite the producer’s  

lower-budget independent film, draining the  

audience away. 

We may call it luck but really it is about lack 

of control. There is little doubt that many film 

businesses operating in the independent sector are 

keenly aware that luck – those factors which are 

beyond the control of a company – has a significant 

impact on a business’s ability to become sustainable. 

While it is acknowledged that there is little that 

can be done by production companies to mitigate 

some of these factors, if a company displays some of 

the success factors described above, they may find 

themselves more often in a position to benefit from 

good luck and also in a more robust condition to 

survive periods of bad luck.

Section 3.0  

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  Success factors for building sustainable 

                               film businesses

Building sustainable film businesses:

the challenges for industry and government

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