Former mk2 movies acquisition and gross sales brokers Olivier Barbier and Ola Byszuk are becoming a member of forces with ex-Orange Studio exec Lenny Porte to create worldwide gross sales firm Fortunate Quantity.
The trio, who’ve labored on a whole lot of auteur titles between them, together with Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Girl on Hearth and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist to call however a number of – are at present constructing their slate for an early 2025 market launch.
Their purpose is to deal with 10 French and worldwide auteur movies a yr, cut up roughly between two to 3 animated options, and 7 to eight fiction movies and docs, together with work by new voices.
The trio need to provide a boutique service, which additionally includes financing and distribution methods from the earliest levels of improvement, to make sure most affect on worldwide markets.
“In an business that has grow to be more and more advanced each by way of manufacturing and distribution, Fortunate Quantity needs to put the notion of service on the coronary heart of its exercise, aiming to strengthen assist for skills, producers and distributors,” they mentioned in assertion asserting the creation of the corporate.
Spurred by the worldwide enlargement of the animation sector, the Fortunate Quantity co-founders have ambitions to grow to be a significant participant within the animation area.
To this finish, they’ve established a strategic partnership with Moon-Keys Worldwide Content material. The corporate specializing within the financing and distribution of animation works, was based by former Mikros Animation MD Boris Herzog in 2023. This tie-up will carry two to 3 mainstream and auteur animated incorporates a yr.
Moon Keys-Worldwide Content material can also be one of many shareholders within the firm, with the the backing of Film One, a fund devoted to financing and distributing animated function movies.
Fortunate Quantity has additionally signed partnerships with Metanoïa, a digital advertising company led by Thomas Creveuil, which is able to design revolutionary campaigns for the Fortunate Quantity gross sales titles.
The corporate can also be becoming a member of forces with sister post-production corporations, IIW, specialised in VFZ, and Studio LUX, which provides enhancing, dailies administration, grading and mastering providers.
The trio says these partnerships will reinforce the vary of providers they’ll suggest to producers and worldwide distributors.
Byszuk was SVP Worldwide Gross sales with mk2 Movies from 2014 to 2021, throughout which period she labored on award-winning titles reminiscent of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Chilly Warfare, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Girl on Hearth and Tom Vol’s Maria By Callas.
She joined French manufacturing firm Nord-Ouest Movies as a producer with a concentrate on scouting new skills. She’s going to retain her connections with Nord-Ouest Movies similtaneously constructing Fortunate Quantity.
Barbier started his profession in worldwide gross sales at Wild Bunch (now Goodfellas) in 2011, engaged on auteur movies reminiscent of Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, and Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Shoplifters.
He joined mk2 movies in 2018 within the acquisitions division and rose to move of acquisitions and improvement two years later. Throughout his time at mk2 movies, he labored on movies reminiscent of Portrait of a Girl on Hearth, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Individual In The World and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of A Fall.
Porte started his profession at Orange Studio in 2007, the place he participated within the co-production of greater than 150 movies and the creation of a listing of greater than 1000 movies.
In 2013, he helped spearhead the creation of the TV and SVOD France gross sales division, within the place of deputy gross sales director. In 2016, he joined the Orange Studio acquisition committee, after which, in 2018, he was concerned within the creation of Orange Studio’s worldwide gross sales division.
Throughout his time at Orange, he labored on titles reminiscent of Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist, Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, Florian Zeller’s The Father, Mark Osbourne’s The Little Prince and Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria.
