Women in film: The story behind Newcastle's highly successful CEO of Goldfinch Studios

From movies starring Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy, to a quirky documentary on Suggs from Madness - just how did your average girl from Gosforth become such a prominent figure in the independent film and TV business?

There is no doubt that Kirsty Bell is a hugely successful businesswoman, and a true advocate for this indie scene - but she’s also the CEO of her own independent film company, Goldfinch Studios, after setting it up in 2014.

When I get to meet her in the idyllic spot of Jesmond Dene Hotel on a surprisingly warm day, I am instantly charmed by her confidence and the fact that, well, she truly knows what she’s talking about.

But without any experience in the film and TV business, how can you possibly make such a prominent mark? The answer lies within her degree and experience; Kirsty wasn’t raised by a plethora of film producers, but she is a law graduate who has dabbled in accountancy and tax, so she understands how to handle money - and a lot of it, too.

“I was studying law at University College London,” she recalls: “[But] I transferred to Newcastle University… The truth is, I found out I was pregnant with my son who is sitting over there,” Philip McKenzie, Goldfinch Entertainment’s commercial and sales director, chimes in with a hello: “So that’s why I came back - I was 19, [but] I graduated in 1988 and landed a job.”

Beginning her career with Arthur Andersen, she was always heavily involved in not just law and tax, but marketing as well. She describes her early days as “a mix of media, marketing and property” before becoming a partner at Baker Tilly (now RSM) at the incredibly young age of 29.

“I was heralded in the likes of The Chronicle as being this young woman who had broken through the glass ceiling… I hated the term!”

But as Kirsty agrees, she had an “unusual” talent of bringing in business; she was always headhunted by top firms because she could secure big partnerships. And thus, her natural ability to bring in clients led her down the path of wanting to bring in cash, too - this is where her career started to take a completely different path.

During Christmas in 1996 - you know, that time of year when people have loads of disposable income - she decided to raise money for an independent film in the North East: “How very sensible of me!

“Nobody had tried to do it in Newcastle before either, so I stood up two weeks before the launch of this particular film - I found the cutting the other day, it’s hilarious - and it closed on New Year’s Eve.”

And through some Christmas miracle, she raised £3m in just a couple of weeks… Despite it sadly becoming a flop, handing all of the money back to investors: “I somehow attract money… I think it’s a trust thing,” she laughs: “I handed it all back and failed miserably! I gave it all back!”

But she’s happy the investment and film failed because not only did she manage to make the film years later with Goldfinch, but with such failure she believes that the firm might not exist in the same light today: “If I had done it then, I probably would have made a lot of mistakes. You’ve always got to fail before you can succeed.

“I don’t think I would have done much in the film space had I been successful.” She’s right because not only does the Goldfinch brand have its own studios in York, but it has ties and offices in London, too. Oh, and it’s already branched out internationally.

Despite having only been around since 2014, the team’s setting their sights on cracking Los Angeles or New York next; they already have Hong Kong under their belt and feel that their ties are only going to get better. In addition, Goldfinch has had partnerships with the likes of Amazon and Netflix and now work in gaming, too.

Kirsty beams: “We are now at over 170 projects; we’ve done over 400 financial deals; we’ve helped 170 projects in film, TV and games… Over 4,000 production jobs. We’ve raised over $250m for deployed projects and budgets which will exceed $500m.”

To go from being a law graduate to paving your way through challenging roles in top companies to then become the CEO of a film studio, is no average career path, sadly and especially not when you’re female: “I didn’t realise until our Christmas party [in 2017] that I’m the only woman CEO of a studio in the UK…

“We’ve only been independent since December 2016, so it’s massive really!”

Of course, Kirsty would love for this statistic to change someday, especially in light of the recent allegations in unequal pay across the country. But until that changes, all she wants is for Goldfinch to grow as a company and to increasingly invest in films and TV for years to come.

“We are not a huge film studio like Warner Bros; we’re trying to make the right films at the right cost and get them sold properly. [We want to] get investors’ money back and keep doing the same thing again and again and again! We’re virtually full for the whole year, it’s all about stability.”

Wrapping up our interview, Kirsty is hopping on a train later that afternoon to stop off in York, and she’ll travel to London three days a week, too. It’s a busy schedule indeed, but hardly makes for a dull day: “We try to come back up here [to the North East] because our families are here and it’s important.

“Every day is different but that’s why I like it.”

You can find out more about Goldfinch Studios here, or follow the team on Twitter @GoldfinchEnt.

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