Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have launched a fund to finance and produce independent films and support emerging directors through a new division of their company, Artists Equity. The division will use a financial model that allows filmmakers to share directly in a film’s revenues rather than treating them solely as a production cost.
Artists Equity launches independent film division
The company, founded by Affleck and Damon in 2022, announced the creation of a division called Artists Equity Independent Pictures, which will finance and produce independent films for theatrical release. The company says the new model aims to combine artistic ambition with financial discipline at a time when financing opportunities are narrowing for projects led by directors at the start of their careers.
The company has not disclosed the value of the fund, nor specified how many films it plans to finance each year or the financial terms for individual projects. Affleck and Damon said independent cinema had played a central role in discovering and developing their careers, and that the new division aims to provide a genuine opportunity for emerging voices, broaden the range of stories produced by the company and meet demand from audiences still seeking high-quality independent films.
The project is linked to the beginnings of Affleck and Damon’s careers. The childhood friends grew up together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the early years of their careers, they struggled to secure substantial roles before writing and starring in Good Will Hunting, an experience that became a turning point in their careers in Hollywood.
The film told the story of a young man who worked as a cleaner at a prestigious university before a professor discovered his exceptional mathematical abilities. Damon played the lead character, while Affleck portrayed his friend. Gus Van Sant directed the film, which was released in 1997 and brought its two young writers into the limelight.
Good Will Hunting received nine Oscar nominations and won two awards at the 1998 ceremony: the first for Robin Williams as best supporting actor, and the second for Affleck and Damon for best original screenplay. The success came after the young writers and actors sought to protect the script and the roles they had written for themselves.
The circumstances of that film do not exactly match the nature of the projects targeted by the new fund, as the new division is focused on directors and other filmmakers at the start of their careers. However, the two experiences are linked by the obstacles of financing and distribution, since talent alone is not enough when production decisions remain concentrated in institutions reluctant to take risks on unknown names.
Through the initiative, Affleck and Damon are putting the influence they gained during their Hollywood careers to work in providing the opportunity they sought in their youth, after moving in the following decades between independent films and major commercial productions. Alongside his work as an actor, Affleck has built a career as a writer, director and producer.
Affleck and Damon draw on their experience to support new directors
Affleck became known to Arab audiences for roles in films including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Behind the camera, his career was crowned when his film Argo won the Oscar for best picture in 2013, alongside other works in which he combined directing, producing and acting. The new division began assembling its slate with two projects led by directors making their feature debuts.
The first project is titled A Woman in the Sun, the directorial debut of Julia Cox, the writer of Nyad, whose lead actress Annette Bening and supporting actress Jodie Foster received Oscar nominations. A Woman in the Sun stars Renée Zellweger, Sissy Spacek and Mia Threapleton, and is a family drama.
The project gives Cox the opportunity to move from writing films directed by others to taking full responsibility for carrying out her cinematic vision in a feature film. The second project is Down River, the first feature directed by Sam Jones after his work in television, which included directing episodes of Ted Lasso.
Jones is co-writing the screenplay with novelist and journalist Carl Hiaasen, while Artists Equity is producing the film with independent companies and producers. The presence of Oscar-winning actresses and experienced producers on these projects does not necessarily mean that the fund will be limited to small films.
Financial model gives creatives a share of revenues
The initial slate reflects an effort to reduce the risks associated with assigning a film to a new director by surrounding the project with a known team while keeping it under that director’s leadership rather than transferring it to a more established filmmaker. The initiative is not limited to providing financing; it uses the financial model on which Artists Equity was founded.
Under this model, the writer, director, actor and producer are treated as partners who can receive a share of the proceeds if the film succeeds, rather than as a cost paid upfront whose financial connection to the project ends when the work is completed.
Affleck said the company compensates key creative personnel in a way similar to its treatment of investors who put money into a production, rather than directing them to separate bonus pools or complicated profit accounts that are difficult to track. The approach is linked to a longstanding problem in Hollywood concerning how films’ net profits are calculated.
A film may generate substantial revenues on paper, but deducting distribution, marketing and internal expenses can result in no profits appearing to be available for distribution. Affleck’s model seeks to tie partners’ payments to a clearer financial path, allowing creative workers to understand their position alongside investors rather than at the end of a long chain of calculations.
Affleck said studios had traditionally treated artists as part of a film’s cost because they were paid before its release and did not bear the same risks as the financier. He believes that giving them greater responsibility and a clearer share of the returns can align their interests with those of investors.
Fund bets on theatrical release and local production
Artists Equity began testing the model with Air, directed by Affleck and released in 2023 in partnership with Amazon, before working to develop it in subsequent projects. The new fund’s focus on films intended for theatrical release comes as streaming platforms have become a major source of production financing in recent years.
Streaming platforms generally acquire rights in return for an upfront fee, without traditional box-office revenues on which to calculate a share for filmmakers. Affleck believes cinema revenues may approach previous levels, but that does not necessarily prove that audience numbers have returned, because higher ticket prices and the spread of premium screenings can raise revenues despite a decline in the number of tickets sold.
The fund also aims to keep a larger share of filming and production in Los Angeles, after the city lost projects to states and countries offering tax incentives and lower production costs.
The initiative therefore responds to the shrinking space for independent films within studios, the creatives’ reduced share of streaming revenues and declining production in the city around which Hollywood’s film industry developed. Affleck also links the difficulty of securing financing to changes in the meaning of stardom within the industry.
In the past, studios spent large sums building an actor’s image and marketing their name until their presence alone became a reason for audiences to buy a ticket. Affleck believes Hollywood still has young stars, including Zendaya, Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi, but now has fewer names recognised by American audiences across generations and regions.
