Completion Bond Group Film Finances Launches German Operation

COLOGNE, Germany – Completion bond group Film Finances has launched a new German operation to service big budget co-productions shot in the territory.

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Located in Cologne, Film Finances’ German office will be run by Marcus Loges, a line-producer on the Tom Hanks/Halle Berry starrer Cloud Atlas, which Film Finances’ bonded and which shot in Germany. 

The world leader in completion guarantees, Film Finances is based in L.A. but also has offices in Canada, Australia, the U.K., Japan, Scandinavia and South Africa.

The first bond issued by the new Cologne office was for Ron Howard’s period racing film Rush starring The Avengers’ Chris Hemsworth and German actor Daniel Brühl.

Film Finances’ co-presidents Kurt Woolner and Steve Ransohoff said the recent increase in high-end German co-productions requiring completion bonds made the decision to set up a German office a logical one. Woolner attributed the boost in co-production to Germany’s lucrative state subsidy schemes, includes its federal film fund, the DFFF.

Together with Arri Film & TV, a division of Munich-based camera technology giant ARRI, Film Finances is developing a program to help produces better access and monetize German subsidies. ARRI development exec Thomas Nickel is coordinating the program.