French film and TV production and distribution group Newen Studios is rebranding as Studio TF1 and expanding its cinema activities, the company’s managing director Pierre Branco has announced.
Former Warner Bros Discovery exec Pierre Branco, who took the reins at Newen Studios last April, detailed the upcoming changes at the TF1 Group subsidiary in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper on Monday.
Branco said the name change went hand in hand with a desire to become more active on the international stage.
“The challenge is to be easily identified on the international scene and thus provide a clear vision to the market,” he said.
Since its acquisition by French commercial TV giant TF1 group in 2015, Newen Studios has grown into one of Europe’s top production and distribution banners with 50 company labels in 11 countries.
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Branco also revealed that the group was planning to expand its existing cinema activities.
“Cinema creates long-term value and it’s a sector in which we have been present for a long time,” he said, noting that the group owned a catalogue spanning some 1,000 titles including classic titles such as The Name of The Rose, The Piano and La Vie En Rose.
The exec said the long-term goal was to double the production of French productions to around 12 to 15 titles a year by 2027.
Recent productions from companies in the group are The Quiet Son (Felicita Films), which premiered in Venice and releases in France this month, and animated feature Blue Eye Samurai (Blue Spirit Studios), with upcoming features including Des Jours Meilleurs (Daï Daï Films) and Natacha, a live action adaptation of the titular popular children’s comic strip book.
Branco said the expanded slate would consist mainly of French comedies with wide appeal but would also include animated films and auteur films as well as bigger budget international cinema. He said the latter was a genre the group wanted “to explore through international co-productions.”
Another goal, he added, was to launch an in-house theatrical distribution label to handle the release of it own films and titles by producers outside the group.
“We’re currently not present in this sector. This move is linked to the acceleration in film production, which represents an economic challenge,” he said.
“The first window of exploitation of a film, the cinema theater, has an enormous impact on the future life of a work. It is important to be able to control it,” he added, saying the strategy would also give greater access to talent.”
Branco said Studio TF1 would start recruiting a theatrical distribution team this year for an operational launch from 2026.
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