Golden Globe Awards 2015: Boyhood wins best drama for twelve years’ investment
More than a decade of funding for motion picture Boyhood paid off for its financial backers yesterday after the movie scooped the prestigious best drama accolade at the Golden Globe Awards.
Boyhood, which stars Ethan Hawke, has won praise for its epic production and the length of funding commitment from its backers, IFC Films. The film-makers recorded characters over 12 years, capturing them as they aged in real time,
IFC, a small New York-based distributor owned by Mad Men backer AMC Networks, stumped up around $200,000 a year between May 2002 and October 2013 to fund the production, a unique arrangement compared to traditional motion picture funding agreements.
IFC, which eventually ploughed $2.4m into the film, is set to deliver a healthy return for the company, with the picture grossing $43m at the box office last year alone.
Yesterday’s Golden Globe award for best drama – one of three for the film, including best director for former oil rig worker Richard Linklater, and best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette – is likely to propel further revenues for the company from future DVD and streaming sales.
“The finance guys would kill me on it,” IFC president Jonathan Sehring told a film festival last year. “There was plenty of ‘why are we doing this? When are we going to see a return?’ The way we structured the entire thing, it wasn’t like we put $5m on the balance sheet in one shot.”