EXCLUSIVE: Former StudioCanal and Newen exec Romain Bessi stepped into Deadline’s Zurich Studio this past weekend, where he outlined the next steps for his international production company alliance The Creatives. The group, which was established five years ago and is comprised of nine production companies, has announced that they will be bringing their companies officially into a jointly-owned holding structure and that Anton Studios will join as a partner and minority investor for the group.
This brings the 17 producer-founders behind Komplizen Film (Germany), Good Chaos (UK), Haut Et Court (France), Lemming Film (Netherlands), Maipo Film (Norway), Razor Film (Germany), Spiro (Israel), Unité (France) and Masha (U.S.) into the first European-rooted producer-owned group of its scale in film and television.
“There’s nothing like it in Europe,” said Bessi, who is CEO of the outfit. “It’s a group of producers, owned by producers. It’s the first time there will be premium companies in the main European territories. Those companies, they are are coming together within a group and all of the founders of those companies are going to get shares of the group in return, meaning that they will be the ones controlling the group.
“So, it’s a group owned by producers, meaning that it’s not owned by equity investors, it’s not owned by a network, it’s owned by producers. For them, the main KPI is creativity, it’s not short-term financial return.”
Bessi, who was attending the Zurich Summit this weekend, was joined by Komplizen’s Janine Jackowski (Sentimental Value).
“We started to have our first meetings five years ago and we’ve been working together in different collaborations for many, many years,” she told Deadline. “We are all independent companies, and we all have a certain track record. We have existed for a long time and we have been approached by various networks or groups and the idea of being part of a group was very appealing to us but at the same time, we really wanted to keep our independence and really be free in the choice of projects, partners and creatives that we are working with.”
Jackowski continued: “When the idea of The Creatives came up this seemed like a great combination to keep all of that and to gain possibilities.”
Bessi added: “It’s really about gaining scale but not giving up autonomy.”
The group has been built in response to what they say is a decade shaped by industrial consolidation, the rise of streamers and AI, plus increasing pressure on public funding. Rather than sell, the producers have invested their companies into this new formalized corporate alliance. Each company retains its own name, team, leadership, culture and creative direction. The 17 founder members and CEO Bessi hold collective control.
Bessi said that within The Creatives “the easiest part of the job” is getting the companies to work together. “When I was at StudioCanal and Newen, I would buy companies and say to them, ‘Now work together, exchange ideas, co-produce content’ and most of them didn’t know each other. Here, it’s different. They know each other, they co-produce together and the synergies are already in place. We’re building a group out of existing synergies.”
Check out the full video above.
