“We’ve been talking a lot about adaptability and staying nimble in an ever-changing market and that can be really tiring sometimes,” said Katie Irwin, Co-Head of International at WME Independent, when she stepped into Deadline’s Zurich Studio.
The exec, who was part of the Zurich Summit conference which runs during the Zurich Film Festival, spoke about the challenges facing the independent sector both in the U.S. and internationally in a candid conversation with CAA Media Finance’s Sarah Schweitzman and 30West’s Maren Olson.
“It’s not that we’re trying to re-invent the wheel every single time but as we all know, individual films they come together in such a unique way. Maren [Olson] spoke about how the need does have to be bespoke, but sometimes staying that nimble can be a lot,” said Irwin. “There’s a lot of interesting challenges in how we’re being creative in putting together finance plans and how we’re getting access to higher level talent.”
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“This is a business where you’re never going to be able to sit still. That’s not how it’s designed,” said Olson, who is EVP of film at 30West. She stressed that “great storytelling does always win the day.”
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“When we talk about what’s going to get people to go into the theatres, that is a huge, huge part of what’s driving it all – is the story something they’re really that excited about. I think in some ways, the challenges are ever evolving but the theme underneath it all about why we are all doing this is the same.”
Schweitzman, pointed to a “dearth of really great material” coming out of the business at the moment, which she sees as a “function of coming out of the two strikes.”
“As much as I think that’s going to create opportunity for people to get really dirty and roll their sleeves up and write things that they never thought possible and [offer up] new voices, I think it’s a time there may feel like there is challenge based off of that, but I think ultimately it’s going to make everyone work that much harder,” Schweitzman said. “I think, just based off of production and how much more production is using outside of the U.S. and budget constraints, there’s a lot of challenging questions coming up for producers and new generations of producers on how they’re going to tackle that.”
The three execs also touched on the importance of accessing soft money – particularly in Europe – when structuring independent productions and indicated that a lack of a “federal tax incentive program” in the U.S. has made weathering the storms of a post-pandemic and post-strike world more difficult than compared to international counterparts.
“There’s something interesting to be said about the fact that in the U.S. that we don’t have a federal tax incentive program and that has affected our ability, in general, to attract and keep things, especially during these ups and downs and changes in the industry,” said Irwin. “It’s nice to have state by state but there is more cohesion we could get if there was a 30,000-foot plan.”
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