With 55 Academy Award nominations between them, AGCS-insured films earned their place in the spotlight at the 95^th Oscars ceremony this year. Like millions of other movie fans, the entertainment division at the Allianz Group’s industrial insurer eagerly tuned in to watch on Sunday 12 March, when Jimmy Kimmel hosted the proceedings from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Five of the 10 movies nominated in the Best Picture category were insured by AGCS, continuing a long tradition of partnership with the film industry that goes back as far as the films of Charlie Chaplin. Many of the most famous pictures in history have relied on AGCS for insurance coverage, including epics like Spartacus, Apocalypse Now, and The Godfather ‘threequel’.

“As well as silent classics like the Keystone Cops, we have moved with the times to cover the ever-evolving exposures associated with high-tech productions like the James Bond franchise – AGCS has covered every 007 film to date – and the cinematic magic of the Harry Potter and Marvel series,” says Wanda Phillips, Head of North America Entertainment Insurance at AGCS.

Despite economic and geopolitical pressures on both productions and audiences in 2022, the film industry enjoyed a welcome return to health, with global box office receipts [1] for the year hitting $25.9bn – a 27% gain on 2021, but still 35% behind the average for the three years before the pandemic (2017-2019).

“It’s great to see the industry return to some normality and audiences return to movie theaters in significant numbers,” says Phillips. “The movie world is undergoing momentous changes, as streaming services and social media platforms proliferate. But it is nothing if not innovative, and the creativity of the sector was celebrated in all its entertaining glory at the Academy Awards.”

Absurdist caper Everything Everywhere All at Once triumphed in the Best Picture category on the night, with Michelle Yeoh's star turn in the film seeing her become the first Asian woman to win the Best Actress gong. In total, the film won seven Academy Awards out of 11 nominations.

Between them, this year's 10 Best Picture nominees had budgets in excess of $850mn and box-office receipts so far of over $4bn. “In a world where so much content is being produced , we see a move towards quality in film production, but this doesn’t come cheap,” says Phillips. “Businesses need to know they have sufficient insurance cover for sophisticated productions. Where costs increase, so, too do exposures because the costs are higher with each day of shooting and this could be reflected in any insurance loss. We’re still suffering the after-effects of pandemic-related postponements and that is putting industry resources – including human resources – under pressure. It can make any rescheduling following an interruption more challenging.”

In addition to insuring blockbusting movies, AGCS also insures post-production facilities, TV shows and ‘DICE’ productions – documentaries, industrial, commercial, and educational productions. 

“With an international team and specialist underwriters to scrutinize scripts, production schedules and budgets, we at AGCS are well placed to support the film industry through the post-lockdown recovery into a world of creative and technological change,” says Phillips. “It goes without saying that we believe all our entertainment clients deserved to be called winners on Oscars night.”

The AGCS Entertainment Insurance team play more than just a cameo role in the movie-making process. Without insurance, many films simply could not make it to our screens. Before underwriting a film, scripts must be read and locations assessed. Some productions are so complex a risk engineer will be sent to the set to check out risks in situ, because if things depart from the script on a big-budget action blockbuster, there could be thrills and spills off screen as well as on. Pyrotechnics, explosions, car chases and stunts are potentially perilous operations, and insurers must take them into account when assessing risks, as well as potential injuries, illness, and medical histories.

Add animals into the mix , costly delays, or the particular risks of shooting in certain locations, with moving machinery, and you have a potent cocktail of potential mishaps, or worse, that could afflict cast and crew. Then there are delays to production, damage to sets, equipment or costumes, and weather events to factor in. Even after a film has ‘wrapped’, there are post-production risks to be aware of – a growing area in this age of visual effects and CGI.