Entertainment accountancy firm Nyman Libson Paul has launched an innovative new funding initiative called The Movies Begin Ltd (TMB), intended to help producers at the early stages of financing their films.

TMB will allow producers to borrow against their expected film tax credits and VAT repayments.

Unlike similar, existing tax credit loans, TMB will not routinely wait until shooting begins to release the money and nor will it insist on a completion bond in every case.

The project is being led by Kirsty Bell, a film specialist and chartered tax adviser at Nyman Libson Paul, herself a producer.

“Producers are under massive financial pressure in the early stages of making a movie. More and more, agents and other contractors want money up front,” Bell noted. “What TMB allows producers to do is to borrow against the money that everyone knows will flow back into the project in the late stages via Film Tax Credits and VAT.”

TMB follows from  Nyman Libson Paul’s launch of Goldfinch Pictures earlier in the year, an enterprise investment scheme (EIS) film company with ancillary seed EIS companies. Projects Goldfinch is backing include the new Mike Bassett film and Under Milk Wood. 

The Movies Begin has already provided funding to 13 films, including Hec McAdam, produced by Stephen Malit and starring Peter Mullan.

The new business has been named in homage to George Méliès, the legendary French film pioneer. His early silent films broke new ground and feature in a box set compilation of 133 early motion pictures called The Movies Begin.