EXCLUSIVE: French sales company Free Dolphin and Nu Boyana Film Studios are teaming up to make films for ad-funded streaming markets.
The plan to create five to ten films annually for the international AVOD market, which will be delivered through “innovative production and distribution strategies.”
The pair will use Nu Boyana’s studio facilities and Free Dolphin’s distribution networks to get projects off the ground.
Free Dolphin chief Fiorenza Cella and Nu Boyana CEO Yariv Lerner are at MIPCOM this week, where they will be presenting films and docs and launching Runway Reels, which launched on Paramount+ in the U.S. in 2025. Ireland’s Tarf Media will be co-selling the latter.
The Free Dolphin-Nu Boyana partnership will officially be unveiled in Cannes, where Cella and Lerner will work out of an office at the Gray D’Albion hotel.
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“I’m thrilled to collaborate with Yariv Lerner on this groundbreaking new series Runaway Reels – Fashion on Film,” said Cella. “We believe this innovative format will resonate with buyers and captivate audiences worldwide.”
The pact is another example of how indie film producers are moving into the international television market in the modern streaming era — MIPCOM would not have been the forum for such a launch in years past. Last week, Amplify Pictures CEO Joe Lewis predicted independently-financed television production “the solution” to many issues facing the industry. While not a direct comparison to today’s pact, it points to how indie TV and film are moving closer together.
Free Dolphin shops around 500 titles in the French market and has a library of worldwide titles. Former Rai, Mediaset, BBC and MTV exec Cella launched the business in 1995 as a distribution business and later added Free Dolphin Productions to the group.
In 2018, Cella launched Free Dolphin Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria, where Nu Boyana is based. She has since produced seven films in the country, shot on location alongside Nu Boyana.
The likes of Hitman’s Bodyguard, Angel Has Fallen, The Expendables franchise and 300: Rise of an Empire have filmed at NuBoyana. It offers 10 sound stages, a modern water tank, various backlot sets and a post-production facility and a sound mixing studio.
Lerner, its founder, has produced films such as Rambo: Last Blood, Hellboy and Hunter Killer. He is also the co-owner of next generation filmmaker program Film Forge, which will next year produce a full-length feature film that Free Dolphin will sell internationally.
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