Cannes-Do Attitude On Tax Credits

When the Cannes Film Festival opens later this month, festivalgoers will flock to movie screenings, hope for invites to the most glamorous parties and check out the celebrities. Then there are folks like John Hadity and Joe Chianese at Entertainment Partners Financial Solutions in Burbank. The pair of executive vice presidents trade in profit-and-loss statements and the esoteric world of international film tax credits – not exactly the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hadity and Chianese are attending the May 15-26 festival to pitch the firm’s consulting and management services. Chianese will even be among the speakers at a May 17 Film Finance Forum. “We can look at tax credit estimates and suggest how to maximize it further, and we monetize the entire process,” Chianese said. Entertainment Partners handles payroll, insurance, residual and other employee-related services for entertainment industry workers. The financial services subsidiary, in addition to the tax-incentive consulting, provides film financing upfront in the amount of tax incentives a production receives. Going after the incentives is more or less mandatory in Hollywood these days as studios look to lower costs. Hadity said no studio contemplates a film without considering incentives. “For independent (filmmakers) this is the easiest form of financing,” he added. In its 66th year and still the world’s premier film festival, Cannes draws attendees worldwide, putting in one place all the potential clients Entertainment Partners wants to reach. There are more than 30 countries offering tax-incentives, with the United Kingdom, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Australia among the most popular filming sites, Chianese said. As for all those parties and screenings? “We are always running around so much,” Hadity said. “We have not been able to do it in the past, because we were so busy.” – Mark R. Madler