Paris-based Backup Films celebrated its 10th anniversary in Rotterdam this week, Geoffrey Macnab reports
It all began in Rotterdam. CineMart 2002 marked the launch of Paris-based Backup Films (which celebrates its 10th anniversary in Rotterdam this week). Trainloads of friends and descendants of the company descended on Rotterdam on Monday for a party at which the band Black Minou, fronted by Melvil Poupaud and his brother Yarol, performed.
“We were invited by Ido (Abram), then the head of CineMart,” recalls founding partner Jean-Baptiste Babin of the company’s earliest steps. The newly launched outfit had just picked up its first project, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady.
Right from the outset, Backup sought to work on an international stage. “We thought that being a film producer no longer consisted of producing domestic content for the domestic territory.” The audience, Backup insisted, was “worldwide, global.” Producers needed to structure their financing based on more than just their home markets.
“It is something that seems very obvious now, but 10 years ago, a French producer would literally finance his film by four or five phone calls in Paris,” Babin notes. “That’s no longer the case, and producers have had to adapt.” Backup set out to “provide the means to structure an ambitious international financing strategy for independent producers.”
The company never takes producer credits. Nor does it take producer receipts. What Backup asks for is a commission on the money it raises. “We only get paid if we find money and the producer accepts the sources of financing that we provide.”
Put it to Babin that the film financing landscape is far more daunting for producers today than it was back in 2002 and he scoffs: “The moaning was exactly the same in 2002 as it is now!” His thesis is that there has never been a time when financing for film was easy. If such a time ever did exist, he adds, “It was way before we started Backup. You just need to adapt, to become a bit of a philosopher and to be very close to the market.”
Babin, who cofounded Backup alongside David Atlan-Jackson, has figures at his fingertips showing just what Backup has achieved over the last 10 years. The company has supported over 400 films. In the process, it has raised over €60 million.
Alongside Backup Films, there is a sister company, B Media Management. (Both are part of what is now called the Backup Media Group.) This develops, markets and operates funds. Since 2006, B Media Management has gathered together over 3,000 investors, putting together a portfolio of more than €50 million.
Backup has always focused on arthouse, director-driven fare. In the last year alone, it has been working with directors of the calibre of Nanni Moretti (Habemas Papam), Alex De La Iglesia (Balada Triste).
The company can invest at any stage in the life of a production, from development to distribution. Backup prides itself on its attention to detail. This applies to the parties it throws as well as the films it helps coax into being. Ask Babin about the 10th-anniversary celebrations here at IFFR and he replies earnestly: “We've mostly worked on two angles – the first is alcohol and the second is music!”