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Roeg Sutherland, co-head of CAA’s media finance department and its international film group, lit a candle of hope at the Zurich Summit this Saturday morning as he spoke about how American audiences are consuming international films
and how there is “more money” available than ever before—thanks, in particular, to a rise in private equity.
“It was great when we did not need equity in these movies,” said the exec, when speaking about the growth in private money in the film business, especially in Europe. “I think there’s a space to do pre-sales on the right package with the right director, even if it’s a more challenging subject. But it’s true that Europeans are now faced with what we’ve been dealing with all our lives, which is [that] you can’t just get a movie financed from government subsidies […] You need equity. The good news is that there’s more money out there than there ever was.”
Sutherland also noted there is so much equity “coming out of the Middle East, Asia, even Europe,” before adding that “we have seen an opportunity in local film, which wasn’t there before.”
The exec also briefly mentioned how one of his colleagues sold Curry Barker’s “Obsession,” before it became a box-office phenomenon. “I promise you, we had no idea that ‘Obsession’ was going to become ‘Obsession,’” he quipped, adding how the filmmaker takes priority over IP or genre at CAA. “That’s the central figure that decides if a movie is going to be good or bad, and that is the person that you’re ultimately betting on. Whether it’s English, Romanian, French… It doesn’t really matter.”
Another change in the industry, according to the exec, is how traditional studios no longer invest in development. “So how do you actually generate those ideas? Where do these ideas come from? I am not talking about AI, but what’s coming out of the creator economy is going to be a leading force. It’s not all going to be these amazing horror movies that do outrageously well.”
Mentioning CCA’s first steps into financing international film, Sutherland said it was an “unbelievable opportunity” to finance films like Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” and Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord.” “That would never have been an opportunity for us. So it’s troubling how the market is shrinking, but there is so much opportunity for people and investors to recognize that.”
Continuing to speak about the internationalization of cinema, Sutherland brought up the fact CAA sold Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s Cannes sensation “La Bola Negra” for “more money than we sell an American movie.”
“When you see ‘Squid Game’ performing well, American audiences are watching Korean content and they’re watching it with subtitles,” he added. “We go and pre-buy European films now because we know that we’re gonna be able to sell them in a market for more money than we would on American films.”
“American audiences watch international movies; that was never true seven years ago,” he emphasized. “So there is a market, and we should be excited about it. You’re going to need equity, and pre-sales are more difficult, but God, it’s good. There’s an audience for it.”
