Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, March 2nd.

Today on Forbes, Why This Film Financing Company is the safest bet in Hollywood.

There's a recurring nightmare for independent movie producers that plays out all too frequently.

It's the weekend before a movie begins shooting on Monday, and the financial backing falls through.

Suddenly, the entire production is in jeopardy.

What do you do? Who do you call?

Miguel Palos, chief operating officer and co-founder of AGC Studios, says it's a bit like being, quote, left at the altar.

Luckily, when this happened to him in October 2022, he called Matthew Helderman,

CEO of Bondett Media Capital, and within a week, they had a term sheet in place to finance

what would become Anna Kendrick's directorial debut, Woman of the Hour.

The movie, which also starred Kendrick, caused a bidding war at the

2003 Toronto International Film Festival and eventually sold to Netflix for $11 million. After its

October release last year, it reached number one on the platform globally, becoming one of the big

indie success stories of 2024. Palos says, quote,

what they offered was something that's become more and more valuable. Lenders in the space are

becoming more conservative, becoming slower to agree to things they agreed to in the past,

and the flexibility and pace bonded operates at is crucial for us. For decades, taking big swings on ambitious independent film projects has been a seductive

and highly risky investment strategy in Hollywood.

Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony will celebrate the best of these success stories, but each

year there are many more fortunes lost than trophies won.

Bondett has differentiated itself since its founding in 2013

by lowering the risk, attracting institutional money,

...