Film Finances And Media Guarantors Merging In Major Shakeup Of Completion Bond Business
EXCLUSIVE: Film Finances, part of the STX Entertainment family, and Media Guarantors are merging, creating a leading global completion bond firm for independent film, a unique space with only a few key players.
Specifically, STX Entertainment sister company Film Services International, the parent of Film Finances, is acquiring Media Guarantors from insurance brokerage CAC Group for an undisclosed price.
Media Guarantors founder and chief executive Fred Milstein will be CEO of the combined bond company. Film Finances EVP Steve Berman will become president.
Film Finances President Greg Trattner will assume the role of Executive Chairman, expanding his responsibilities across the broader family of companies held by Film Services International, under group CEO Peter Coleman.
CAC acquired Media Guarantors in 2024, its first acquisition in the entertainment space. The sale follows CAC’s own merger earlier this year to rival insurance broker Baldwin Group.
Completion bonds are contracts where the bond firm guarantees that a film will be completed on time and on budget, protecting investors, banks, sales agents and distributors. If there are problems, the firm is on the hook for overages or other costs. Bonds mitigate risk so it can be harder to get financing without one. Many indie productions use them.
“The expanded platform strengthens the completion bond market that independent finance relies on, while accelerating investment in data-driven risk assessment that shortens the path from green light to bond and gives financiers earlier certainty,” he said.
Combined with the group’s other assets, he added, it creates a “preeminent partner for independent producers, financiers, and distributors, and marks the latest step in building a true one-stop shop for production, spanning financing, physical production, and post-production.”
Film Services International, now wholly owned by large financial and insurance platform A-CAP, acquired Film Finances and its related companies — including Pivotal Post, EPS-Cineworks Digital Studios, Buff Dubbs + DAMsmart, Silver Trak Digital and LiquidLight — in the fall of 2024. The sale was part of a prepackaged bankruptcy enabling Film Finances to detach from its legally and financially challenged private equity owner at the time, 777 Partners.
FFI joined STX in January when the production company relaunched — also under deep pocketed A-CAP — after years of false starts with a string of owners. That deal saw STX founder and chairman Robert Simonds and chief executive Noah Fogelson exit.
Both sides of the business report to Coleman.
STX films include Gerard Butler’s Greenland and sequel Greenland 2: Migration. properties include Jennifer Lopez-starring Hustlers; the Bad Moms franchise; Guy Ritchie’s action-comedy The Gentlemen with Matthew McConaughey; Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game starring Jessica Chastain; I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer; My Spy, starring Dave Bautista; and 21 Bridges, starring Chadwick Boseman.
“STX has been quiet for a few years. But it still has a brand and it still has IP that is valuable,” Coleman had noted back when A-CAP came in with plans to recapitalize the company.
Romcom Happy Hours by and starring Katie Holmes with Joshua Jackson premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. Coleman said the company is in development on a handful of projects with announcements coming over the next couple of months.
