AFM: Film Financier Forest Road Secures $70 Million (EXCLUSIVE)

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Specialty film financier Forest Road Company has secured an additional $70 million in committed capital, in addition to the previously announced $50 million.

Forest Road made the announcement Wednesday on the opening day of the American Film Market.

The outfit, which is based in Los Angeles and New York, offers production companies the ability to capitalize their films by borrowing from Forest Road against their film tax credits and rebates at below-market rates. Forest Road can lend against credits tied to movie budgets as small as $100,000.

Forest Road has provided funding for more than a dozen films, including Jamie Bell’s “Skin,” acquired by A24 and DirecTV; Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Kindergarten Teacher,” acquired by Netflix; “Driveways,” directed by Andrew Ahn; and Molly Ringwald’s “All These Small Moments,” acquired by Orion.

“We strive to offer the most cost-effective and seamless financing solutions for filmmakers, and we are thrilled to continue to raise capital to help responsible creators across the industry,” said founder and CEO Zachary Tarica. “We are looking to finance over 50 movies next year.”

Tarica told Variety that Forest Road has seen substantial growth due to repeat business for providing producers with accounting and tax credit administration services. He noted that Forest Road has worked on four Maven Pictures titles, including “Kindergarten Teacher” and “Skin.”

Forest Road also came on to work with the state of Kentucky to provide financing for Sam Goldberg’s “Silo,” a documentary about the dangers of grain entrapment in the Midwest. Plans are for the film to screen in hundreds of churches. “I’d never seen anything like this movie,” Tarica added.