EXCLUSIVE: Entertainment accountancy firm Nyman Libson Paul (NLP) is launching new venture Goldfinch Pictures Ltd, dedicated to supporting British films.

Goldfinch Pictures Ltd is setting up an EIS company that aims to raise $6.5m (£4m) from investors.

Among the people who will sit on its expert panel are former British Film Commissioner Colin Brown and Stephen Evans, the producer of Oscar-winning films Henry V and The Madness of King George.

Goldfinch Pictures has been set up by Kirsty Bell, a film specialist and partner at Nyman Libson Paul. She will be managing director of the operation, which will support eight separate films over three years, all of which will be closely scrutinised and vetted by the expert panel, and have the appropriate approval from the Inland Revenue.

At the same time as launching Goldfinch Pictures, Nyman Libson Paul is putting together a number of smaller SEIS operations aimed at particular sectors to include animation, ballet, Shakespeare, horror and Russian theatre.

“My belief is that there is a gap in the market and that a venture like this is going to help independent film producers structure their finance plans in a much more transparent way,” Bell told ScreenDaily.

The intention is to put Goldfinch’s equity investors in a position where “they are last in and first out”.

The venture will be pre-vetted by HMRC.

“We are playing with the rules, not against the rules,” Bell commented. “We are putting the investors in the strongest possible position with the agreement of the producers and production company and we are expecting reasonable returns.” She added that “this is about giving real returns to real investors.”

Goldfinch’s investment in individual films will be “anything up to £500,000” ($820,000).

The new outfit is expecting to announce details of its first slate by the end of the year.

Bell revealed some of the projects Nyman Lisbon Paul is expecting to support through its SEIS operations.

For example, company is supporting a new CGI-based film version of Macbeth being developed by Green Screen productions in York.

The company is involved in a production of Swan Lake being developed by a major ballet company and is backing Dolya Gavanski’s The Russian Gambler, a new modern-day adaptation of Dostoyvsky’s The Gambler.

Bell is a producer in her own right, having raised $2.1m (£1.3m) to make Harrigan, a gritty police drama starring Stephen Tompkinson.

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