UK-based Centtrip is in the business of alleviating the inevitable stress and pressures for independent film producers working amid an increasingly complex and challenging financial landscape.
Centtrip provides a financial management platform that operates as an alternative banking solution for high-value, internationally mobile film and TV productions. It gives producers oversight and control of the entire financing process, supporting the full lifecycle of a production.
“There is a massive benefit in having a single end-to-end provider,” says Centtrip CEO Jane Turner. “It is faster and much more financially efficient.”
Turner, whose career includes roles in media and entertainment licensing and distribution, brings that experience to ensure Centtrip’s offering to independent film producers supplies value-for-money, reduces transaction costs and helps them spend less time on cash quibbles.
The company’s work is informed by a report published this autumn. ‘When Capital Contracts: Navigating the New Economics of Film Finance’ draws on interviews with producers, financiers and other industry professionals to explore why financing UK independent film has become so complex and, crucially, suggest solutions.
The contributors to the report were Christelle Conan, founder, Crystal Lake Media, John Gillett, founder, Scripted Finance, Nikki Parrott, producer, co-founder, Tigerlily Productions, Huw Penallt Jones, founder-director, South West Financial Management, Kate Phibbs, head of studio, Film Soho, Oliver Roskill, the Bafta-winning producer of Under The Shadow, Jasper Warry, founder and CEO of Hello Deer Studios, alongside Centtrip’s chief product officer Sarah Gooding and director of sales Oliver Mascarenhas.
Support for the indie sector
Launched at the Screen Summit 2026 ‘Financing The Future of UK Film’, the report found only 10% of UK producers go on to make a second film. Centtrip’s aim is to support the UK independent film sector and, ultimately, to see more UK films made.
The report findings were echoed throughout the Screen Summit. Topics included the importance of producers learning the language of finance to better sell their film-as-investment projects, speaking with experts early and the growing international nature of UK film as cross-border co-productions increase and the UK becomes an increasingly important bridge and talent base between Europe and the US.
On a session called ‘Making Every Pound Count’, Turner emphasised Centtrip’s belief that producers “shouldn’t lose money in the air”. She outlined how Centtrip’s platform allows producers to hold multiple currencies, hedge against foreign exchange movements and avoid unnecessary bank-to-bank charges. The platform also enables producers to have control over the cost of moving money at the right time in multiple currencies and enables them to hedge against volatile exchange rates.
“You need to be able to do all of that early, to avoid cost and complexity further down the line,” Turner says. “Producers have to plan all of that financial exposure across the project. This is where we have a mixture of infrastructure, our platform , but also our team, who really know the market well.
“We are what we call ‘financier friendly’, and we recognise that there’s less money in the market now than there ever was,” Turner continues. “Debt financing, equity financing, producers are going to have multiple financial institutions that demand transparency and potentially control over the accounts that they have.
“We can talk to all of those guys and make sure producers are set up in the most cost-efficient and efficient way for the level of control and transparency that everybody needs right the way across it. And of course the value of the IP to the producer is everything.”
Following the fall-off in pre-sales agreements in the UK and beyond, the report identifies six areas of film finance complexity that require attention. They include a disconnect in understanding and expectations between creatives and investors, the growth in multi-party finance structures, the impact of streaming platforms on producers’ ability to retain intellectual property rights and the cost of cash-flowing tax and VAT credits.
The report suggests nine ways to help producers meet these challenges, such as using non-recoupable soft money to de-risk the finance stack, urging the need to treat investors as long-term partners, not one-off cheques, and ensuring every recoupable element demonstrates its path to repayment.
Download ‘When Capital Contracts: Navigating the New Economics of Film Finance’ here
No comments yet