Wild Bunch is getting deeper into animation with the launch of a new sales company it is setting up with French animation specialist Gebeka.
Announced in Annecy, the company will be headed up by Gebeka’s Reginald de Guillebon and Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval. The 50/50 partnership will look to rep around five-six animated films per year, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic.
Vincent Maraval told us: “This is a natural extension for us. We’ve been wanting to do more animation. We’ve done three in the last year, including Where Is Anne Frank?, which debuts at Cannes, and Earwig And The Witch. The new films on the slate will be high-end movies that play on the major festival circuit or have awards potential.”
The plan is to hire a sales exec to manage the titles next year with this exec reporting to Wild Bunch Head Of International Sales Eva Diederix. Acquisitions will be handled by Maraval, Livia Van der Staay, Marion Delord and de Guillebon.
The first title in the tie-up is due to be revealed tomorrow during Annecy.
Wild Bunch has had a strong connection to Studio Ghibli over the years and last year struck a very lucrative deal with Netflix for the streamer to get exclusive SVOD rights for two years to a slate of 21 Ghibli classics. The global deal excluded U.S., Japan and Chinese rights.
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