Culture. Empathy. Capital.
PSYK makes distinctive films with the ambition to become lasting cultural artifacts, and runs them with the production discipline and financing rigor that lets the work repeat.
For years I watched incredible projects from talented producers, writers and directors either take years to get financed or never get made at all, because studios and streamers can only finance a small share of what’s out there, prioritizing big budgets and theatrical scale.
Theaters need films of every shape and size to meet audiences’ shifting appetites. Independent film is left to fill that gap, but often lacks the financing models or infrastructure to actually get made — and too many original stories never reach the screen.
I saw the need for a long-term, sustainable financing solution that gives creatives a sanctuary — the freedom to tell the story only they can tell, without pressure to compromise.
Founder statement, PSYK corporate overview, 18 September 2026.
PSYK combines creative judgment, production management and financial expertise in one company. An audience that stays with a film carries it beyond its first release, and it’s what makes the film earn.
We believe a single film can be a cultural artifact, an act of collective empathy and a return, because all three come from the same source: holding an audience.
Distinctive, authored films identified early, before the wider conversation catches up — with the potential to remain meaningful across audiences and generations.
The work gives people a reason to watch, remember and return.
Meaningful stories can nurture empathy within and between communities, and the practice that makes that possible sits in the budget rather than in the intention.
Human understanding has intrinsic value, and its effects can compound into wider society.
A budget the audience proposition can support, a financeable plan, and a contractual share of the cash and rights the film creates.
Commercial discipline sustains future work and investor participation.
Heidi Psyk has spent two decades on the three sides this business usually keeps apart: getting a script to the point a studio will finance it, getting expensive pictures made, and making audiences and institutions care.
Development and packaging
Script development and talent packaging at Mutual Film Company, under a first-look deal with Paramount, and at The Firm’s production arm.
Knows how a script becomes a package a studio will finance, and where a marketable idea actually dies in development.
Studio production
Post-production coordination on studio pictures including Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure and Bad Boys 2, on budgets of $150m to $300m.
Knows what a delivery calendar costs when it slips, and where studio money is wasted on films that look safe.
Brand and narrative
Close to a decade building story-driven work that grew the brand’s community and global reach, through the company’s Bain Capital transaction at a $625m valuation.
A decade of arguing the commercial case for work that does not look commercial on paper, and winning it.
Access and slate
Relationships across financing, talent representation and independent distribution mean projects arrive before they are shopped widely. A slate is in development under review.
Sourcing does not start cold, and distribution thinking starts at treatment stage.
A coherent mandate and an audience proposition with substance.
Control of the cost and timing of making a saleable film.
Production commitments matched to credible revenue.
Capital exposure and the route to repayment made visible.
Our ambition is a catalog of distinctive films audiences keep watching, discussing and sharing, and a company capable of creating the next generation of that work. Production rigor, commercial judgment and financial infrastructure are what make that repeatable.
PSYK welcomes conversations with filmmakers, producers, distributors, and prospective capital partners who share this ambition.
heidi@psyk.studio
Chief financial officer
Twenty years of experience in investment banking, corporate finance and operating CFO roles, advising founders and boards through cross-border transactions. At PSYK he is responsible for the company’s structure, its financial control and the capital work behind each project. MBA, University of Oxford, where he is a recurring guest lecturer. Based in Amsterdam.
Previous professional experience is distinct from a PSYK production or investment track record. The platform is being built, and specialist capacity, external appointments and the operating track record develop alongside the slate.
“PSYK backs globally resonant, genre-agnostic stories built around human connection: films and series that make audiences feel something real, see through someone else’s eyes, and leave more compassionate than they arrived.”
Heidi Psyk, founder
An original voice and a specific human story give the film an identity in a crowded market. Development tests the audience proposition with independent market input.
Who will choose this film, and why?
Theatrical, platform and broadcast routes are tested against the film rather than assumed. Release investment, deductions and approvals are negotiated and costed up front.
Which partners reach that audience at a viable cost?
Retained or licensed rights support later sales and repeat viewing. Expiring licenses, unsold territories and delivery materials are actively maintained.
What future cash can PSYK actually capture?
Mandate wording from PSYK first-principles records, September 2026. The three tests are the business thesis and not an established PSYK revenue record. No distributor, platform or partner is represented as committed.
Our first films tell specific, human stories, drawn from or inspired by real events. Behind each one is a disciplined bet. We weigh every title against our criteria and against the rest of the slate: genre, budget, home territory, market timing and primary buyer. No single film exceeds a set maximum exposure.
Slate composition from PSYK first-principles records, September 2026, as carried in the PSYK corporate overview of 18 September 2026. No title is represented as financed, greenlit or contracted, and rights and attachments require confirmation title by title.
This section sets out the rules PSYK uses to commit capital. It is available to prospective investors and partners on request.
That password is not recognized.
Don’t have access? Reach out to us at heidi@psyk.studio
European public incentives provide the sort of security for private investment that few other regions can boast. PSYK assembles rebate stacks, co-financing structures and pre-sales contracted during production.
Where certainty sits in a European budget. Select a layer.
Development capital buys options and evidence before the company commits to production. Each gate is a decision with a stop condition. Select a gate.
Gate 01 of four
The decision
Daily progress. Weekly committed cost, cash need and cost to complete. Scope changes recorded, contingency authority assigned, and funding pausable for defined breaches. Spend is judged by its contribution to the finished film.
Incentive rate and cap: Netherlands Film Fund, 2026. German rate change effective 1 February 2025 and federal film support of about EUR 310 million a year: Cineuropa, 4 August 2025. Minimum guarantee capacity and reliance on equity: Screen International, ahead of Cannes 2026. Security for senior and gap facilities: Entertainment Partners, 7 June 2023. Gate sequence and gate four conditions from the PSYK structure decision of 17 September 2026, as carried in the PSYK corporate overview of 18 September 2026. Rights-holding requirement: Netherlands Film Fund, Regulations for the Netherlands Film Production Incentive, in force 1 January 2025, Article 7(6)(m). Proposed operating standard, and detailed responsibilities and approval thresholds remain to be adopted. Early entry carries development, packaging and financing risk. Market conditions, and not PSYK results.
Everything a single film needs in order to be financed sits in that film’s own company. Everything that outlives a single film stays with PSYK.
The platform
Brand and trademarks. The development slate, treatments and underlying rights before greenlight.
Sequel, remake, spin-off and series rights, reserved in every assignment.
An exclusive exploitation license from each film, and voting shares and board control in every film company.
A lender takes its mortgage from the company that owns the film, a completion guarantor takes its rights from the same place, and the Netherlands Film Fund requires its applicant to hold the rights.
Sequel, remake, spin-off and series rights are reserved in every assignment, so what a picture generates beyond itself accrues to PSYK and builds a library across slates.
The incentive cap of EUR 3 million per production company per year runs per applicant, so a company per picture also paces the Dutch-qualifying slate.
Structure from the PSYK structure analysis and structure decision of 17 September 2026, prepared for Heidi Psyk and PwC Legal and Tax. Rights-holding requirement: Netherlands Film Fund, Regulations for the Netherlands Film Production Incentive, in force 1 January 2025, Article 7(6)(m). Incentive cap: Netherlands Film Fund, 2026. Entity names are working labels, the architecture remains subject to counsel, and it is expected to evolve.
Most of the budget is contracted before anyone shoots. The incentive is a cash rebate set by a national scheme, the pre-sale is an obligation a distributor has signed, and the debt is advanced against those contracts. Assembling those layers territory by territory is the core production skill in European film, and PSYK is built around it.
Grants, incentives and recoupable support assessed separately, on the net benefit after compliance costs and production consequences.
Pre-sales and minimum guarantees bring contracted revenue against defined rights, weighed against the upside surrendered.
Borrowing against contracted receipts bridges timing and adds interest, fees and security. The receipt and its bridge are counted once.
Equity covers the remainder and bears residual exposure. The plan is re-tested if support, a buyer or a lender falls away.
Receipts are paid into an account held by an independent collection account manager, under an agreement signed by every financier, which is what makes the order in which money is shared contractual rather than administrative.
A cash rebate against qualifying spend reduces the equity a plan needs and never repays from revenue. A recouping contribution repays from revenue at a position set by its own scheme, and Eurimages support above EUR 150,000 recoups from the first euro.
Producer, development and service fees for actual work. Equity and contingent participation on each film’s agreed economics. Rights retained or licensed to the platform that may generate continuing cash.
Framework and conceptual explanation, and not PSYK financing commitments. Scheme example: Netherlands Film Production Incentive. Collection account practice: David Zannoni of Fintage House, writing for Stage 32. Eurimages recoupment: Council of Europe Regulations, Article 7.1.1, 1 January 2025. Order, premiums, participation and dividend policy are project-specific. A commissioned series is funded by its commissioner on its own terms, so the plan described here is the feature case. No PSYK return is forecast.
A defined creative mandate, founder access and a slate in development. The commercial task now is turning that starting position into financeable projects and observable results, with a small accountable core and a permanent cost base that grows only when the workload and income support it.
Rights, attachments and development status title by title. Market assumptions tested independently.
Converts access into an investable proposition.
Each title’s intended contribution, audience route and proportionate impact budget on the record.
Makes the mission accountable across the film’s life.
A permanent platform alongside a company per greenlit film. Counsel review and related-party policy completed.
Makes ownership, obligations and distributions clear.
Production controls adopted, cash coverage confirmed, first projects executed against plan.
Establishes the record repeat capital relies on.
From the PSYK corporate overview of 18 September 2026. Comparable-title research requires independent verification before model use. No financing close, completed PSYK production or investor distribution is asserted.