Roeg Sutherland Says He’s Bullish On Indie Cinema Sector As B.O. & Foreign Sales Edge Back To Pre-Pandemic Levels – EFM

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CAA’s Media Finance Co-Head Roeg Sutherland gave an upbeat assessment of the state of the indie movie sector as the European Film Market kicked into gear on Friday. “We’ve showed up with about 20 [projects] and we’ll walk away with 20 movies that are going to go into production and some relatively sizeable deals,” said Sutherland.

Speaking at a packed out EFM masterclass on film financing and packaging, Sutherland acknowledged that the L.A. fires had meant for a tough start to the year for the indie community, but said overall the outlook was bright.

He cited the recent box office success for Focus Features with Nosferatu, Fox Searchlight with A Complete Unknown and Neon with Longlegs. “People are actually coming back out to watch adult dramas, I realize Longlegs is not an adult drama, but the other ones are,” he said, also noting the box office performances of awards season frontrunners The Brutalist and Anora.

He said part of the current positivity was linked to producers budgeting their projects keenly. “The Brutalist was made for $9M, and Anora, six or seven, that’s fiscally responsible.