Backup strikes partnership with Groupe 1

The exclusive partnership will see the companies sourcing and working on 10-15 international projects per year. Films and TV projects will be budgeted €1m-€30m.

The companies plan to work with international independent producers on “commercially viable projects with artistic ambition.”

Each company will preserve independence in other activities: Backup Media’s equity investment in film & TV via B Media Management and Marquet’s film production activities through Groupe 2.

Backup Films, part of David Atlan-Jackson, Jean-Baptiste Babin and Joel Thibout’s Backup Media, has worked on films totalling budgets of more than Euros 200m since 2002, usually coming on board for finance of 15% to 60% of a film’s budget. Credits include Habemus Papam, Poliss, A Separation, In A Better World and A Single Man.

Marquet is the former Deputy General Manager of StudioCanal; Groupe 1, which he founded in 2002, has recently worked on partially financing Christophe Gans’ La Belle et la Bete. He also works on financial services for lcients such as Yellow Bird (the Millenium trilogy). Groupe 1’s investments have gone into projects with an aggregate budget of Euros 100m. Credits include Michel Ocelot’s Azur & Asmar and Christian Carion’s Joyeux Noël.

Backup co-founder Jean-Baptiste Babin said: “Teaming up with Daniel Marquet, is a unique and special chance to offer a higher level of services to producers and filmmakers who we want to support and believe in.”

Marquet added: “In the last three decades, I have witnessed the film sector being subject to constant changes and economical challenges. We always had to adapt and find creative solutions to keep our film culture alive. Today, there’s a serious growing pool of new forms of film investment available to all of us and it represents one of the most active changes in the film business. But financing independent pictures has become more complex. Adding my experience and network to Backup dynamic forces will lead to stronger and powerful ways to put together pictures for the benefit of the producers.”

The deal came into effect on Sept 1. Babin and Marquet are both attending Toronto.