Former mk2 films acquisition and sales agents Olivier Barbier and Ola Byszuk are joining forces with ex-Orange Studio exec Lenny Porte to create international sales company Lucky Number.
The trio, who have worked on hundreds of auteur titles between them, including Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist to name but a few – are currently building their slate for an early 2025 market launch.
Their aim is to handle 10 French and international auteur films a year, split roughly between two to three animated features, and seven to eight fiction films and docs, including work by new voices.
The trio want to offer a boutique service, which also involves financing and distribution strategies from the earliest stages of development, to ensure maximum impact on international markets.
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“In an industry that has become increasingly complex both in terms of production and distribution, Lucky Number wishes to place the notion of service at the heart of its activity, aiming to strengthen support for talents, producers and distributors,” they said in statement announcing the creation of the company.
Spurred by the international expansion of the animation sector, the Lucky Number co-founders have ambitions to become a major player in the animation space.
To this end, they have established a strategic partnership with Moon-Keys International Content. The company specializing in the financing and distribution of animation works, was founded by former Mikros Animation MD Boris Herzog in 2023. This tie-up will bring two to three mainstream and auteur animated features a year.
Moon Keys-International Content is also one of the shareholders in the company, with the the backing of Movie One, a fund dedicated to financing and distributing animated feature films.
Lucky Number has also signed partnerships with Metanoïa, a digital marketing agency led by Thomas Creveuil, which will design innovative campaigns for the Lucky Number sales titles.
The company is also joining forces with sister post-production companies, IIW, specialized in VFZ, and Studio LUX, which offers editing, dailies management, grading and mastering services.
The trio says these partnerships will reinforce the range of services they can propose to producers and international distributors.
Byszuk was SVP International Sales with mk2 Films from 2014 to 2021, during which time she worked on award-winning titles such as Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Tom Vol’s Maria By Callas.
She joined French production company Nord-Ouest Films as a producer with a focus on scouting new talents. She will retain her connections with Nord-Ouest Films at the same time as building Lucky Number.
Barbier began his career in international sales at Wild Bunch (now Goodfellas) in 2011, working on auteur films such as Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, and Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Shoplifters.
He joined mk2 films in 2018 in the acquisitions department and rose to head of acquisitions and development two years later. During his time at mk2 films, he worked on films such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of A Fall.
Porte began his career at Orange Studio in 2007, where he participated in the co-production of more than 150 films and the creation of a catalogue of more than 1000 films.
In 2013, he helped spearhead the creation of the TV and SVOD France sales department, in the position of deputy sales director. In 2016, he joined the Orange Studio acquisition committee, and then, in 2018, he was involved in the creation of Orange Studio’s international sales department.
During his time at Orange, he worked on titles such as Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist, Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, Florian Zeller’s The Father, Mark Osbourne’s The Little Prince and Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria.
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