Film Finances and Media Guarantors combine in bond business shake-up
Film Services International is buying Media Guarantors, putting two major independent-film completion bond players under one roof.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Two of the names behind the safety net for indie movie money are joining forces.
Film Services International, the STX Entertainment sister company that owns Film Finances, is acquiring Media Guarantors from insurance brokerage CAC Group, Deadline reported. The price was not disclosed.
The deal folds Film Finances and Media Guarantors into a combined completion bond company, creating a major player in a specialized part of the independent film business that has only a handful of significant operators, according to Deadline.
Media Guarantors founder and CEO Fred Milstein will lead the merged bond business as chief executive. Steve Berman, currently executive vice president at Film Finances, will serve as president.
Greg Trattner, president of Film Finances, is moving into the role of executive chairman. Deadline reported that Trattner’s remit will expand across the wider group of companies owned by Film Services International, which is led by group CEO Peter Coleman.
Completion bonds sit at the less glamorous, very serious end of moviemaking. The bond company gives lenders, investors, distributors and sales agents assurance that a production will be finished on schedule and within its budget. If trouble hits, the bond company can be responsible for overruns or other costs.
That protection matters in independent film financing, where productions often depend on a mix of banks, presales, private money and distributors. Deadline reported that many indie projects use completion bonds, and that securing financing can be tougher without one.
Coleman said the larger platform would support independent film finance while speeding investment in data-based risk assessment, according to Deadline. He said the goal is to shorten the time between a green light and a bond, giving financiers earlier confidence.
He also said that, together with the group’s other holdings, the deal helps build a broader production services operation covering financing, physical production and post-production, Deadline reported.
The sale comes after a run of ownership changes across the companies involved. CAC bought Media Guarantors in 2024, marking its first entertainment-sector acquisition, according to Deadline. CAC later merged with rival insurance broker Baldwin Group earlier this year.
Film Services International, now fully owned by financial and insurance platform A-CAP, bought Film Finances and related businesses in fall 2024. Deadline reported that the transaction was part of a prepackaged bankruptcy that separated Film Finances from its former private equity owner, 777 Partners, which had legal and financial problems at the time.
Those related companies included Pivotal Post, EPS-Cineworks Digital Studios, Buff Dubbs + DAMsmart, Silver Trak Digital and LiquidLight.
Film Services International became part of the STX orbit in January, when STX relaunched under A-CAP after several years of ownership turmoil, Deadline reported. That move also saw STX founder and chairman Robert Simonds and CEO Noah Fogelson leave the company.
Both the STX operation and Film Services International report to Coleman, according to Deadline.
STX’s library includes Greenland and its sequel Greenland 2: Migration, Hustlers, the Bad Moms films, The Gentlemen, Molly’s Game, I Feel Pretty, My Spy and 21 Bridges. Deadline also reported that the Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson romantic comedy Happy Hours premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival, with STX developing a small slate of additional projects.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.