Mediawan takes majority stake in Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli’s Our Films

Mediawan has taken a majority stake in Our Films, the production and film financing company launched earlier this year by top Italian producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli.

Rome-based Our Films reunites Gianani and Mieli who have worked together on productions including HBO’s The Young Pope, The New Pope and My Brilliant Friend.

Recently, Mieli has produced films such as Paolo Sorrentino’sThe Hand of God and Parthenope, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Gianani’s recent film credits include The Eight Mountains by Felix Von Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, Italian box office smash There Is Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi and Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov - The Ballad.

Mieli and Gianani both worked from 2009 at Wildside which was acquired by Fremantle in 2015. Mieli then set up The Apartment in 2020 within Fremantle, with Gianani continuing to run Wildside. Both left their Fremantle-owned labels earlier this year.

Our Films aims to work with established and emerging European, US and international filmmakers and talent across features, documentaries and series.

Although based in Rome, the Our Films acquisition is part of Mediawan’s US strategy and complements its 2022 majority investment in Brad Pitt’s Plan B.

European production and distribution group Mediawan is now home to more than 80 companies and has a presence in 13 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, and the UK in Europe, alongside operations in Africa, Asia, and the US.

Mediawan productions include Call My Agent, Three Body Problem, Bob Marley: One Love, The Count of Monte Cristo and One Day.

Mieli is premiering three projects at the Venice film festival produced through The Apartment: Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig; Pablo Larrain’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie; and Joe Wright’s eight-episode series M, about the life of Mussolini.

Mediawan’s Venice titles include Tim Burton’s opening film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Jon Watts’ Wolfs starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Both are produced by Plan B.

Mediawan will also premiere And Their Children After Them in Competition directed by Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma and produced by Chi-Fou-Mi; and Plan B’s documentaries One to One: John & Yoko, directed by Kevin Macdonald, and Apocalypse in the Tropics directed by Petra Costa.

“Through Our Films, we are reinforcing our ambition to bring together the greatest talent behind the best content worldwide,” said Pierre-Antoine Capton, co-founder and CEO of The Mediawan Group, and Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures.

Mieli and Gianani said: “’Our’ symbolizes our partnership with artists, as we stand alongside them to champion their vision and projects from the very beginning to the distribution stage. Through our efforts and financial resources, we commit to protecting and sharing with our creatives the control, empowerment, and freedom necessary to uphold the integrity of their art.”

• Major European production and distribution groups: Mediawan