The Stuff Debt Financiers Really Care About.
With Sharon Menzies
“Just pick up the phone…There are things in the Interparty or the financing that I just consider standard and normal and that everybody would know but not everybody knows… and so I really encourage producers to talk to financiers.”
— Sharon Menzies
Season 1; Episode 6
We chat to Sharon Menzies, Managing Director of Fulcrum Media Finance, about going from a small start up to one of Australia and New Zealand's largest specialist film financing companies, the benefits of tax incentives and gap finance, film financing strategies in the age of COVID, the key differences between investment and debt finance, where problems arise before and during production, and the stuff global debt financiers really care about.
Sharon Menzies
Managing Director
Fulcrum Media Finance
Sharon Menzies has led the team at Fulcrum since the company’s inception in 2008.
Sharon’s focus is on building and maintaining relationships with producers that, at their core, result in sustainable, reliable and accessible cashflow lending arrangements for film and television projects. To achieve this, Sharon calls on a myriad of capabilities and experience: an intricate knowledge of tax, investment and grant based incentive schemes for film and television across a number of jurisdictions; an in-depth understanding of production and the global film and television industry as a whole; an active involvement with key industry bodies in the New Zealand and Australian industries; and an ability to structure cashflow arrangements that satisfy both the criteria and the client.
Additionally, Sharon has a history of being heavily involved at an industry level, including her Co-Presidency of Screen Production and Development Association of New Zealand (SPADA) (2017 to present), SPADA board member (Nov 2009 – Dec 2011), board member for Women in Film and Television (NZ) (WIFT NZ) (October 2013) and later her Presidency (21 Oct 2014 to 13 October 2015) and as an assessor for Screen Australia’s Enterprise Programme (2015 and 2016), as well as her regular attendance at major international film festivals and markets.
Prior to setting up Fulcrum, Sharon had 20 years of experience in commercial and business affairs in film finance companies in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Her financing career started in the banking industry working for a major Australian bank structuring mid-market corporate loans.