Mediawan closes deal for majority stake in Lorenzo Mieli & Mario Gianani’s OUR Films – DNyuz

Mediawan has officially announced that its majority stake in Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani’s OUR Films has closed as the Venice Film Festival gets underway. News of the two parties’ tie-up began coming out of Cannes.

The investment is in line with Mediawan’s strategy to create a pan-European studio, home to more than 80 production companies. The Paris-based studio made a majority investment in Brad Pitt’s Plan B in December 2022, with four of the shingled projects set to premiere at the Lido: Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuicethe Apple Jon Watts directed Pitt-George Clooney comedy noir Wolvesand documentaries One on One: John and Yokodirected by Kevin Macdonald, and Apocalypse in the tropics directed by Petra Costa.

Mieli and Gianani left as CEOs of their respective Fremantle-based labels, Wildside and The Apartment, in January, and launched their Rome, Italy-based OUR Films earlier this year. The duo has built a reputation for making high-quality films, documentaries, TV series and more for a global audience. Additionally, they’re known for their deep relationships with content creators and talent, coupled with their keen independent financing sensibilities in raising soft money and forging co-productions.

Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures, tells Deadline that the collaboration with OUR Films is a partnership that has a “common DNA in terms of taste, ambition, strategy and vision.”

Gianani called the new partnership with Mediawan an “Evolution.”

“We needed a partner who could adapt to the market. It is not easy for large companies to adapt to the ever-changing market conditions,” he added.

OUR Films will announce their full programme soon.

Mediawan and OUR Films share similar visions: investing, nurturing and owning early-stage content development while being able to operate in a disrupted market ruled by analytics. Mediawan now has a presence in 13 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux and the UK in Europe, alongside operations in Africa, Asia and the US. Projects Mediawan has been involved in include Call My Agent, Three Body Problem, Bob Marley: One Love, Miraculous Ladybug, Rhythm and Flow France, The Agency, The Count of Montecristo, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, HIP/High Potential, And One day.

“We couldn’t be more excited to come together again under our new OUR Films banner and join forces with the brilliant and passionate Mediawan team,” Mieli and Gianani jointly exclaimed. “Together, we are building a new creative hub to support the world’s best filmmakers in telling bold and courageous stories that elevate our lives and the art form through shared cinematic excellence. This is the purpose of OUR Films.”

The duo added: “‘OUR’ symbolizes our partnership with artists, as we stand with them to champion their vision and projects from inception to distribution. Through our efforts and financial resources, we commit to protecting and sharing with our creatives the control, empowerment and freedom necessary to preserve the integrity of their art. This is the mission of OUR Films.”

Currently, both Mediawan and Mieli and Gianani are coming to the fall film festivals armed with a multitude of projects.

In addition to the Plan B feature film projects in Venice, Mediawan And their children after them (in official competition) directed by Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma and produced by CHI FOU MI.

At the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Mieli will present three projects produced by his former Fremantle film studio The Apartment Pictures: Luca Guadagnino’s Foreign, based on the book by William Burroughs, starring Daniel Craig; Pablo Larrain’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie; and Joe Wright’s eight-episode limited series M, about the life of Mussolini.

“We are delighted to welcome Lorenzo and Mario, two of the most successful producers of internationally acclaimed films and series in the industry, who inspire us with their taste and modern creative approach. Through OUR Films, we are reinforcing our ambition to bring together the best talent behind the best content worldwide,” said Pierre-Antoine Capton, co-founder and CEO of The Mediawan Group, and Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures, jointly.

Among the projects Mieli, former CEO of Fremantle Italia, has made under The Apartment Pictures are the Oscar nominees The hand of God (Silver Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival), Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and everything (Silver Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival), Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (Coppa Volpi Award for Cailee Spaeny at the 2023 Venice Film Festival) and Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope (in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival) which will be released in the United States by A24.

Gianani’s feature film canon includes The mafia is only from the estate directed by Pif (European Film Awards for Best Comedy in 2014), The Eight Mountains directed by Felix Von Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch (Jury Prize Cannes Film Festival, 4 David di Donatello and 2 Silver Ribbons), the Italian blockbuster There is still tomorrow directed by Paola Cortellesi (19 nominations at the David di Donatello Awards in 2024) and Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov: The Ballad (Official Competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival), co-produced with Chapter 2 (Mediawan).

Together, Gianani and Mieli have created worldwide productions, such as the HBO Sorrentino series The young pope And The new popeGuadagninos We are who we are for HBO, and HBO’s My brilliant frienddirected by Saverio Costanzo and based on the bestselling books by Elena Ferrante; the series will soon premiere its final season.

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