3 weeks ago
Jerome Levy and David Atlan-Jackson – co-founders of increasing pan-European theatrical characteristic film-focused Vuelta Group – deed nan Cannes Film Festival’s reddish carpet this evening pinch opening movie The Electric Kiss.
The group’s Paris-based subsidiary Playtime is handling world income connected Pierre Salvadori’s play romantic-comedy starring Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, and Vimala Pons, while Vuelta Germany has taken authorities for its territory.
It is among 15 films debuting successful Official Selection and nan parallel sections pinch Vuelta connections. Competition title A Woman’s Life is being sold by its Brussels-based institution Be For Films.
Rights for James Gray’s Paper Tiger, which is besides successful nan moving for a Palme d’Or, person been acquired by nan group’s WW Entertainment for Benelux and Scanbox for Scandinavia, which has besides picked up Nicolas Winding Refn’s Out of Competition screener Her Private Hell for nan region.
Playtime is besides handling income connected Louis Clichy’s Iron Man successful Un Certain Regard, Géraldine Nakache’s Think Good successful Cannes Premiere, Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven successful Directors’ Fortnight and Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh And Fuel in Critics’ Week.
The group’s Berlin-based income institution Films Boutique is trading Thiago Guedes’ Aqui successful Cannes Premiere, The Golden Age successful Cannes Classics and The Castle successful Critics’ Week, while Global Constellation is trading Midnight Screenings title Jim Queen and Viva Carmen, which plays successful Directors’ Fortnight.
Production and distribution institution Pan, successful which Vuelta has a stake, has acquired theatrical authorities for Think Good, which it besides produced, arsenic good arsenic Too Many Beasts successful Directors’ Fortnight and Adieu Cruel World successful Critics’ Week.
Other companies successful nan fold but not cited supra see Rome-based Indiana, which is coming disconnected nan occurrence of Gennaro Nunziate’s record-breaking deed Buen Camino with Checco Zalone, which has conscionable grossed adjacent to $90 cardinal astatine nan Italian container agency to go nan astir successful section movie ever.
Italian accumulation and distribution institution Piperfilm and world income spinoff Piperplay are besides portion of nan Vuelta Group, pinch nan second structuring a Netflix woody for Buen Camino.
Cannes Connections
The Cannes 2026 haul is nan consequence of a scheme which began to return style connected nan fringes of nan show 4 years agone complete a meal astatine festivalier favourite Fred l’Ecailler.
“That Cannes we made our first connection to Scanbox and we had a meal pinch immoderate of nan parties we were talking to astatine nan time,” recalls Levy, citing Indiana, Playtime and Square One which past joined nan Vuelta Group. “Pan was location too. They had nan opening movie by Michel Hazanavicius” (Final Cut).
Levy and Atlas-Jackson’s Vuelta travel had started months previously.
Atlan-Jackson was mulling his adjacent steps aft an effort to build a European distribution group nether his Backup Media banner, pinch France’s The Jokers Films and Benelux’s Cinéart arsenic its first cornerstones, deed nan buffers owed to nan Covid-19 pandemic and nan emergence of streamers.
“We had deals successful spot pinch Italy, Scandinavia and Switzerland and we were trying to money raise… investors told america that films were done, that group would ne'er spell to cinemas again and that nan occupation of being an independent supplier was dead… we released Parasite, decided that was arsenic bully arsenic it would get, and sold our shares to nan elder The Jokers partners,” recounts Atlan-Jackson.
Film and media finance master Levy was besides considering what do adjacent aft a five-year stint arsenic Vice Chairman astatine Archie Comic Publications, nan universes of which person served arsenic inspiration for nan Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series.
Prior to that, nan Wharton alumni, who trim his finance teeth astatine Goldman Sachs, co-founded media-focused Mesa Securities, which provided mergers and acquisitions, firm finance and different strategical counsel to a scope of clients including Colony Capital, Google, Disney Discovery, Time Inc, and Viacom, and was acquired by finance slope Houlihan Lokey successful 2015.
Atlan-Jackson’s brother, a long-time friend of Levy, suggested nan brace sat down talked and they discovered that their thoughts astir a European workplace pinch a beardown attraction connected theatrical distribution chimed.
“Our instinct, David and I, was that astatine nan time, everybody thought everything was going to spell to nan platform. We thought this is not nan lawsuit and that to springiness longevity to a movie and nan life it deserves, aft each nan imaginative power that went into making it, it needed to spell done a full-cycle, including a theatrical release,” says Levy.
“It was post-Covid. A batch of group were saying it’s imaginable that theaters will not exist. So, it was a spot of a contrarian approach, but thing that David and I powerfully believed in.”
Together they hatched a scheme to create a European workplace pinch a beardown attraction connected distribution, which besides did production.
“A batch of groups pinch a attraction connected accumulation had been rolled out, but none, isolated from Studiocanal, pinch beardown attraction connected distribution and international… our ambition is to go nan location for European talents and go nan gateway for independent producers pinch an perspective for European content,” says Levy.
Danish pan-Scandinavia supplier Scanbox was 1 of nan first companies they approached, pinch Levy flying from nan Berlinale successful 2022 to Copenhagen for meal pinch CEO Thor Sigurjonsson.
“Initially we looked astatine acquiring Wild Bunch, and past that fell through… it would person been crazy… So then, I’m like, okay, let’s build it piecemeal and we tin study done nan process,” recounts Levy.
“I called Thor saying, ‘I’m going to beryllium successful Berlin. Let maine travel and spot you successful Copenhagen, and we tin person meal together. He agreed and said he would return attraction of nan restaurant.
Neither of them clocked nan value of nan agreed date, February 14.
“He called saying ‘ I’m sorry, I can’t find a array earlier 10pm I don’t understand what’s happening, but is 10pm okay for you?’ I’m for illustration ‘sure’. We get location and it’s virtually tables of two, 1 aft nan other.”
The unintended Valentine’s matchmaking repast paid off. Sigurjonsson, who was already attempting to standard up acquisitions and accumulation astatine nan time, instantly saw nan advantage of belonging to a larger European group.
Vuelta sealed an eight-figure woody for Scanbox astatine nan extremity of 2022 pinch nan group announcing nan acquisition successful July 2023 alongside that of Germany’s Square One.
Production slate
Three years on, Scanbox Production is portion measurement done filming Alexander Payne’s Danish comedy-drama Somewhere Out There starring Norway’s Sentimental prima Renate Reinsve alongside Danish stars Jacob Haugaard (The jut-nuts), Jacob Lohmann (Dynastiet Mærsk), Ole Sørensen (The Sunfish) and Lane Lind (Matador).
“The 2nd portion of filming, which has to beryllium a summertime shoot, will statesman astatine nan extremity of May, early June,” says Atlan-Jackson.
The accumulation limb has precocious grown nan squad pinch nan summation of Lina Flint (Sons) and Birgitte Skov (Margrete: Queen Of The North), who subordinate Rikke Lassen and Bylgja Aegisdottir, screenwriter Jan Trygve Royneland, and imaginative head Lone Korslund.
Payne’s Somewhere Out There is among a slate of high-profile projects successful accumulation crossed nan Vuelta Group.
Bertrand Bonello is presently shooting Vatican-set thriller Santo Subito! starring Mark Ruffalo arsenic an American leader investigating nan life of precocious Pope John Paul II, arsenic nan religion assesses whether he should beryllium canonized aliases not. Polish prima Andrzej Chyra plays nan Pontiff and Charlotte Rampling, his long-time friend Polish-American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.
The Vuelta Group is backing nan characteristic lead produced by Paris-based Mandarin & Compagnie successful co-production pinch Indiana, Poland’s Madants and Playtime, successful relation pinch PiperFilm. Playtime is besides handling world sales.
Pan has precocious wrapped biopic Badinter, starring Bastien Bouillon arsenic precocious lawyer and leader Robert Badinter arsenic he battled to get nan decease punishment abolished successful France erstwhile he was Justice Minister nether François Mitterand, and is moving connected post-production for Lebanese head Joyce A. Nashawati’s Greece-set scary Sound of Silence.
Riding precocious connected nan occurrence of Buen Camino, Indiana has respective productions connected nan boil, including nan adjacent movie by its head Nunziate, reuniting him pinch character Angelo Duro, pinch whom he scored nan €10m deed I Am nan End of nan World (Io Sono La Fine Del Mondo), arsenic good arsenic a caller movie pinch drama trio Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo.
Vuelta Germany, nan institution created retired of nan merger betwixt and Telepool, which it bought from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook successful 2024, is besides readying its first productions.
Atlan-Jackson says location has been a play of accommodation arsenic nan 2 companies were rolled into one, which saw erstwhile SquareOne CEO Al Muneanu discontinue his domiciled arsenic CEO of nan merged section successful 2025.
“We’re taking nan clip now to reshape nan strategy of nan institution to wherever we want it to be, which is much local. Both Telepool and SquareOne were distributors focused connected satisfying TV buyers and not successful creating worth by releasing movie theatrically,” he says.
“We are trying to alteration that, create a supplier civilization wherever they spot that they tin springiness worth to a movie and waste it after.”
First productions connected its slate see Tony Vahl’s WWII play Crux, which is being sold by Global Constellation and is expected to premiere astatine a show later this year, pinch different projects successful nan process of being signed.
Flexibility
The group is not focused connected immoderate peculiar benignant of genre successful position of nan productions it gets down aliases acquires for income and/or distribution.
“We’ll get down comedies for illustration Buen Camino, but arsenic waste a movie for illustration Yellow Letters,” says Lévy referring to this year’s Golden Bear victor which was sold by Be For Films.
Atlan-Jackson says this is successful keeping pinch nan wider ethos of nan group.
“We’re an integrated group but we’re besides very flexible. We don’t request each nan companies to beryllium progressive successful each movie. Sometimes we conscionable administer a film, for illustration we distributed Queer, for example, successful France,” he says, referring to Luca Guadagnino’s movie which was released by Pan successful early 2025.
“Other times it will beryllium a accumulation aliases co-production pinch our distribution. We want to beryllium present, but we besides want to beryllium arsenic elastic arsenic imaginable because it’s reliable making films,” he adds.
Levy says they besides want to beryllium respectful of their subsidiaries pre-existing relationships successful nan industry, pointing to Buen Camino arsenic an illustration of this.
“We produced it and did world income connected it, but nan talent had a very beardown established narration pinch Medusa,” he explains, referring to nan Mediaset-owned Italian distributor.
“That was thing we genuinely honoured and respected, truthful they did nan distribution successful Italy. We had a woody pinch them that worked for everybody, I deliberation we request to enactment elastic because it’s not an each aliases thing benignant of business.”
On nan world front, Buen Camino was sold to Netflix which released it connected April 29 successful 226 countries, dubbing it into much than 14 languages.
Levy and Atlan-Jackson opportunity that while nan group remains resolutely pro-theatrical release, nan Netflix woody made sense.
“We were surely consenting to administer it, theatrically arsenic good but it’s besides a mobility of what nan talent want to do and what is nan safest measurement for that content. But it was a determination made pinch nan talent, not thing that we pushed on,” he says.
“We judge successful theatrical, but it needs to beryllium done successful business pinch nan talent but it’s not easy for talent of that magnitude to spell doorway to doorway successful each market.”
Atlan-Jackson suggests a theatrical merchandise successful definite territories whitethorn person helped foster nickname of nan film’s head Nunziate.
“His films person been remade successful Spain and successful France but he himself, he’s not known,” he says of nan director.
“The mobility is tin Netflix do that preamble and past nan adjacent movie is released successful theaters because he is much well-known,” adds Levy.
Both admit that local-language European comedies often struggle to recreation extracurricular of their location territory theatrical but opportunity it thing they would for illustration to change.
“In a cleanable world down nan road, section companies will beryllium beardown capable to travel. That’s portion of our ambition, to person nan sensation of consumers crossed Europe germinate to go much European successful itself, but that takes a batch of time,” adds Levy.
He points to Emmanuel Courcol’s caller societal drama The Marching Band, which was sold by Playtime, arsenic a characteristic which demonstrated that this is not a pipedream.
“We released it successful Scandinavia wherever it did highly good and we were successful speech for a remake successful Germany, but nan original movie did truthful good successful Germany that that benignant of killed nan remake.”
Local Language complete English Language
For now, nan group is focusing much connected section connection productions alternatively than exploring nan English-language space.
Levy notes that while Bonello’s movie is 50% successful English, it ticked boxes pinch nan Vuelta Group much because it’s a European communicative and Indiana were connected committee arsenic a producer.
“Is it easier to do movie successful English? I don’t know,” he says. “It loses a small spot of nan authenticity and nan localization of it to immoderate degree. Can you marketplace it much easily? Can it travel? Does it pull a bigger assemblage if it’s successful English? In immoderate cases, yes, but it’s lawsuit by case.”
Atlan-Jackson points to nan illustration of nan 2nd movie successful nan Dutch Loverboy movie franchise, which Amsterdam subsidiary WW Entertainment sewage down aft achieving a $4.4 cardinal gross astatine nan container agency successful nan Netherlands connected nan first film.
“The head wants to commencement making films successful English, but organically, this 1 had to beryllium successful Dutch. We’re very happy making section connection films because they’re important to us. Sometimes nan stories will lend themselves, nan talents will lend themselves to being partially successful English, afloat successful English, but not each nan time,” he says.
He and Levy propose that nan attraction connected keenly budgeted elevated section connection fare besides makes much economical consciousness complete big-ticket English-language U.S. indie titles successful nan existent climate.
“Those American projects, nan marketplace is getting very binary wherever everybody wants nan aforesaid movie truthful connected these American films nan prices spell crazy,” says Atlan-Jackson.
Vuelta Group sewage disconnected nan crushed pinch an first $100m successful backing from Connecticut-based backstage investor Great Mountain Partners, which Lévy says is successful for nan long-haul.
“They’ve done this earlier successful nan past connected nan euphony side. They ain and negociate nan Concord Music Group (CMG)… and built it piecemeal… which is really I sewage to cognize them,” says Levy. [Since this question and reply took spot successful mid-April, it has been announced that Nashville-based CMG will merge with Bertelsmann-owned rival BMG to create nan 4th biggest euphony institution successful nan world.]
“They’re very diligent superior and they’re into building something. They really judge successful nan creation of a European studio,” he says.
The group is now looking to raise much costs successful Europe and has irons successful nan occurrence pinch a respective imaginable European investors, pinch adjacent goals connected its sky including expanding into Poland successful Spain.
Atlan-Jackson says nan hunt for finance person to location makes consciousness fixed nan group’s European DNA.
“The world has changed a batch successful 3 years,” says Levy. “We person a batch to do up of america and we’re eager successful our goals.”
