Interview with FilmHedge Founder & CEO Jon Gosier at the 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival

SCAD alumni American producer and entertainment industry professional Jon Gosier’s film career began while working with Tyler Perry on the movie “Diary of Mad Black Woman (2005).” In 2008, however, Gosier left the film industry to begin a career in venture capital and Tech, during which time he built data focused software companies. He later came full circle and went back into entertainment, working in both the music and film industries. During his successful business ventures in music and film, Gosier has provided A-list recording artists and other entertainers with new ways of capitalizing on their audience data. He has worked with partners such as Warner Music, Broadscale, Spotify, Tidal, and Nielsen Entertainment. Having recently attended his sixth Cannes Film Festival @ the 76th edition, Gosier is here to stay on the film finance and production scene. Jon Gosier's latest film finance venture, FilmHedge (filmhedge.com), made headlines at this year's Cannes Film Festival with the announcement of a $25 million first-look financing production partnership with Riveting Entertainment Group.  

In an interview with Jon Gosier about FilmHedge at Cannes, here is what he had to say:

You have a background in Venture Capital and Tech. Can you tell us how you made the transition from that world into film investment and production?

JON: For me, the journey was Film, then Tech and Venture Capital, then back to Film. I went to school at Savannah College of Art and Design in 1999 to study film production. Then when I got out of college one of my first jobs was working on Tyler Perry’s first movie “Diary of Mad Black Woman.” I ended up working at his company for a few years. Then in 2008 I left the film industry to pursue tech, founding successful companies like Audigent (http://audigent.com) and MetaLayer (http://metalayer.com). I was successful enough in tech that I became a venture capitalist, investing in smaller tech companies. In 2017, after I’d sold those companies and exited from a VC fund, I wanted to get back into the area I was in love with originally, film. So, I started to invest in feature films and production companies. This eventually gave me the insights needed to start my company FilmHedge.

Before going into film, you also worked with major musicians to help them monetize their works digitally, giving you a unique perspective to the entertainment business. Do you marry your music work with your work in the film business?

JON: Not really. There are similarities though. Audigent at its core is a programmatic advertising company. They use innovative tech to improve the way online ads reach people, resulting in improved performance and engagement. Originally, Audigent was doing this in partnership with the three major record labels (Warner, Sony and Universal), which created a new revenue source for the music business. Revenue derived 100% from data as opposed to music, streaming, or touring.

Audigent disrupted the way money flowed in and out of a major pillar of the entertainment industry. My company FilmHedge doesn’t do what Audigent does at all, but the similarity is that it is disrupting the way Film and TV is financed. We’re changing the way money flows in and out of Film and TV productions. What I learned from founding Audigent was that it’s possible to challenge the status quo of an industry and completely redefine the way it all works using tech and data. Both companies are positively disrupting old industries.

How does your background in tech, capital and the music business help and influence you in film finance and production that sets you apart from others in the film business?

JON: Building tech companies is about identifying problems, engineering solutions, and executing strategies that lead to different, scalable outcomes. What do I mean by scalable? Meaning the solution must be repeatable for the greatest number of customers without having to change small details. Facebook has billions of users because it built one platform that they can all use to connect to family and friends. McDonalds exists in over 100 countries because it gives its restaurants the recipes and machines to churn out the same food items over and over again. That’s scale: one product or service that can be used by millions (or billions) at the same time.

With FilmHedge I looked at Film and TV finance and asked myself a question: “If thousands of movies and TV shows are funded every year, why is the process of raising and closing money always so different for each of them?” That’s horribly inefficient. FilmHedge streamlines the process to make it more efficient. We offer a single financial product (up to $20 million per production) and we automate much of the document review and legal closing process because, while minor tweaks are often made, it’s usually 80% the same with each deal. We aim to use artificial intelligence (A.I.) to make those minor tweaks.

You are working on several films and TV series. What are the parameters you look for when taking on a new project?

JON: We look for films with budgets between $1 million and $35 million. This is because the after-market and distribution strategy for films below $1 million is often very different from above. In fact, most film budgets that successfully get funded by FilmHedge are above $5 million. The $1 to $5 million range has too much nuance to get into, so I’d say they are the exception for us rather than the rule. We qualify productions by things that are objective: Are there tax credits that have been approved? Does the production have pre-sale agreements or distribution in place? Is there a completion bond/insurance in place? Getting those agreements involves some subjectivity, but once you do, having those agreements in place is basically a pass/fail thing. If films have some or all these things in place, we can fund a production.  

Out of everything you have worked on thus far, do you have a film/TV project you are most proud of?

JON: I’m proud of the fact that in just three years FilmHedge has risen to compete with film finance groups that have been around for decades. We have just as much, if not more, money as them and we often get the same opportunities to finance. To me this represents two things: 1) that the industry has been starving for change, it just needed someone to step up to change it. I’m proud to be part of the team that did. And secondly, so many industry veterans told me that what I was trying to do wasn’t possible back when I started. Their vision for what was possible was clouded by their own successes, failures, and egos. I was bullish on building this company because I noticed none of them could ever explain why it wasn’t possible. They would just tell me it wasn’t possible. But ‘possibility’ is also objective and logical, ‘doubt’ is subjective and based on emotion or fear. I knew I was on to something when I kept hearing the same doubt without any explanation as to why this wouldn’t work. We’re now 25 films and $150 million deployed. It worked. There was nothing to fear in the first place.

At Cannes you announced backing production company Riveting Entertainment with a $25M first-look financing deal. Can you tell us more about this partnership? 

JON: We entered a $25 million first-look financing production partnership with Riveting Entertainment Group. The funding will be used to finance productions produced by Riveting Films. FilmHedge, Riveting, and my other company Southbox Entertainment, will collaborate on a series of feature length films and scripted TV productions. Southbox Entertainment (COLLATERAL DATA, WITCH HUNT, RISE, PHOBIAS, SKYLINES) will support Riveting Films operationally, to help them package and carry out the productions. I’m also joining Riveting as a strategic advisor across their verticals in music, music videos and film to guide the company as they expand. It was a natural fit given my history with the music industry and Audigent.

Where would you like to see FilmHedge go in the next five years?

JON: FilmHedge’s mission is to provide ‘a new financial operating system’ for Hollywood. Meaning we want to provide a more efficient and scalable way for money to flow through industry. By offering a repeatable, reliable way for financing Film/TV deals it gives our backers more confidence to put more money to work in the space. Based on our current growth and committed capital, in five years we could easily have a fund of over $1 billion dedicated to Film/TV productions. Last year we were at $100 million but that number has grown significantly already, we just haven’t announced exactly how much yet. Stay tuned!

You attended Cannes this year. Why is it so important for financiers, producers, and all industry professionals to attend markets like Cannes every year?

JON: This was FilmHedge’s second year having a major presence at the Cannes Film Festival as a sponsor. Cannes is where the world’s top talent meets to celebrate cinema, and more importantly, get deals done. Our goal in attending is to educate the producers on how best to get the funding they need for their projects. A great script is nothing if you don’t know how to get funds or close the types of deals that will bring the funding. This is what many creatives are missing – the insight into how the money side of the industry works. We do a lot of basic education on things like equity vs. debt financing, and certainly we are there to educate producers on how to qualify for deals with FilmHedge.

What was your highlight at this year's Cannes Film Festival?

JON: The best place to be at Cannes 2023 was a place called Misfit House. It was a pop-up dance club and lounge sponsored by my friends at Misfit productions. It was more packed and more fun than most of the local night clubs and somehow, they built an entire indoor jungle and hot tub with immersive performances, private shows by cellists, and more. It was so different, accessible, and raw compared to the glitzy parties in multi-million-dollar villas and yachts that are the usual fare at Cannes. It was a nice change.

My other highlight was the fact that I was able to convince 50 people from my home state Georgia, the City of Atlanta, and my old school Savannah College of Art and Design to attend. Georgia has become one of the new hubs of the Film/TV industry but has traditionally had poor representation at Cannes. This is a shame because if Georgia isn’t represented in these spaces, people won’t know what the State has to offer. My colleagues and I at http://cannesatl.com made sure that wasn’t the case this year. Georgia showed up and showed out. Mission accomplished!

Interview by Vanessa McMahon