Fast-growing European studio Anton Studios is taking a minority position as a partner and investor in The Creatives. The group, first founded as a long-term strategic partnership in 2021, is moving into a solidified company, with a jointly owned holding structure. The new model will see The Creatives become the first European-rooted producer-owned group of its scale in film and television, with Romain Bessi remaining as CEO.
Speaking with Variety, Bessi said this consolidated company was “always the point.”
“But they didn’t know how to do it, which is when they reached out to me,” he said. “Of course, creating a group costs money, so during the last year and a half I was structuring the group and looking for an investor to bring some money into the holding company.”
Finding the investor was “not so easy,” because the model built by The Creatives is “very new in the industry.” All 17 producers in the group are shareholders and control the group. “It’s very unique. Usually, you have one person or company who gets the shares and the control. Because of that, some investors were a bit concerned about the governance of the group,” Bessi said.
