When you think of the film industry, your mind likely drifts to glamorous premieres, A-list actors, and multi-million dollar blockbusters. But what you rarely see are the financial masterminds behind the scenes—the ones ensuring these films actually get made. Enter Jon Gosier, an American film financier, who has taken his vast experience from tech and venture capital into the film world. I caught up with Jon while he was in Asia, where he shared his journey from working on Tyler Perry’s early projects to founding FilmHedge, a platform designed to revolutionize how films are funded. If you’re a filmmaker or creative wondering how to get your foot in the door, this is the interview you’ve been waiting for.
Can you tell us about your background and what led you to your current role?
Long story short, I started in film school at the Savannah College of Art and Design, studying film and TV production. But one thing I realized after graduating was that no one had taught me how to finance films. After bouncing around different entertainment sectors, I eventually started working with a then-up-and-coming filmmaker named Tyler Perry. I was part of his team on Diary of a Mad Black Woman and several other early projects. Watching his rocket ship take off from the inside was eye-opening—especially his business acumen. He taught me that you can pave your own path. After that, I moved into tech, built software companies, sold two of them, and eventually found my way back to film, but this time from the finance side. That’s what led to FilmHedge.
So FilmHedge helps de-risk film and TV investments. How exactly does that work?
FilmHedge was created to solve problems for financiers who want to invest in film and TV without taking on unnecessary risk. Whether it’s us financing a project directly or on behalf of other investors, we make sure we know exactly where the money is coming from and how we’ll get it back before we write a check. That’s the key difference between what we do and what traditional film investors do—we eliminate a lot of the guesswork.
What types of projects have you financed through FilmHedge?
We’ve been involved in over 50 films, deploying more than $200 million. Some of our projects include Skylines with Frank Grillo and Lindsey Morgan, a $10 million sci-fi film. More recently, we financed Nandor Fodor, a dark comedy with Simon Pegg, and The Cure, a horror film by a brilliant female director that touches on wealth inequality and health. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to return capital to investors, often in under a year, with interest.
How does FilmHedge ensure it gets its money back, even if a film underperforms?
The beauty of our model is that we don’t take performance risks. What that means is we’re not betting on whether the film does well at the box office. Instead, we work with producers who already have pre-sale agreements in place with distributors like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu. These are essentially “purchase orders” for the film before it’s even made. We provide financing against that corporate paper, which guarantees payment upon delivery. So whether the movie is a hit or a flop doesn’t impact our return.
That’s fascinating. So in a way, if a film works with FilmHedge, there’s no such thing as a box office bomb, right?
Exactly. For FilmHedge and our financiers, the box office results are irrelevant because we’ve already secured our money before the film is released. We base our lending on the producer’s ability to deliver the film, not how well it performs afterward. It’s a safer, smarter way to finance movies in an industry that’s notoriously risky.
It sounds like this could change the entire financing model for Hollywood. Is that where things are headed?
Absolutely. What we’re doing is the future of film finance. Studios used to take on all the financial risk, but that’s changing. We’re already seeing studios like Warner Bros. partner with third-party financiers like us. For instance, half the budget for Joker was financed by an independent company called Bron Studios. It’s a model that allows studios to mitigate risk while still producing big-budget films. Instead of putting up 100% of the financing, they might cover 50% and let companies like FilmHedge handle the rest.
If I’m a young filmmaker with no connections, how do I get a company like FilmHedge to invest in my project?
First and foremost, you need to educate yourself on the financial side of filmmaking. A lot of creatives show up saying, “I’m brilliant, give me money.” That doesn’t work anymore. You need to speak the language of film finance. Understand things like completion bonds, pre-sales, and collection account management agreements (CAMAs). These are the tools financiers like us use to determine whether a project is worth the investment. If you don’t know how to present your project in these terms, you’re walking into the room with one hand tied behind your back. If you can speak intelligently about these things, you’re already ahead of most filmmakers trying to get funding.
