Investment main policy

Working with premium talent: As in any private equity fund, selecting the production team is essential. Our fund aims to work with independent professionals having proven their capabilities in leading projects to profitable success. We focus on directors and actors based on their track records and their notoriety : they secure international revenues and also answer at the audience’s needs.

Adequate film budget: as for any company a key objective is to control costs and to improve traditional efficiency ratios. Financing Tier 2 budget movies with a sales potential and premium talent allows the fund to raise European subsidies into the film financing and to halve production costs.

Optimal revenues:  Financial and commercial criteria are dominant. The fund analyses the projects considering their commercial potential on the International market. On the main European territories (France, Germany, UK, Benelux) we will anticipate each segment of exploitation (cinema box-office, TV, DVD/VOD) in order to advance the local promotional costs and recoup the investments in first position on tickets sold, DVD/VOD revenues and TV sales.

Investment criteria

Film development

• Selection criteria :  experience of team (actors, directors, scriptwriters); originality, marketability and quality of the script.
• Fund actions : script evaluation, casting approval, budget evaluation (feasibility)

Film production

• Selection criteria : budget level, financing structure and estimation of the international sales revenues (based on the film genre, cast, budget, similar films…).
• Fund actions : cost control, marketing supervision and film quality.

Film distribution

• Selection criteria : evaluation of the distribution revenues on each media and marketing costs evaluation. 
• Fund actions : supervision of the distribution budget & marketing strategy.

Traditional film financing models oblige producers to sell all their rights. As a result, the film (as an asset) is indebted and this makes it impossible for investors to recoup their investment. By investing directly in the project from the very beginning, our fund optimizes profitability for all the investors… and each investment will be recouped in first position at each revenue phase.

Luxembourg, the heart of European Films. 

Internet and Video-On-Demand services have revolutionised the film distribution; it has now entered into the global mass retail world. Luxembourg leads the way, with global players such as iTunes Europe or Amazon operating from the country.

More recently, the newly elected government has re-emphasized the Luxembourg long-term commitment towards the movie industry and its very favourable business environment.

Luxembourg, is today the perfect country to set up co-production, to develop a rights acquisition policy and to finance films internationally.

Governance

Rights over a movie are not financial securities; it is not legally possible for a fund to invest directly in movies, which is why we have set up the production company named GRAND DUCHY FILMS.

This company will be established in Luxembourg and will be managed by our team. It will apply the investment strategy aiming at investing in about 45 movies over 3 years, maximum. This targets superior risk-reward patterns and the fund will require guaranteed transparency & reporting for each investment.

Investing in the movie sector provides direct access to the movies financed by the fund: besides legal and financial information sent by the fund, a letter is sent to investors every six months. Moreover, the fund can organize meetings with the actors and directors, and also offers invitations for premieres and festivals.

The management team pools sector-specific skills as well as management experience, they will be proactive with the film project team (project selection, scenario, casting, international sales evaluation, marketing costs optimization,…).