Umedia rebrands under one name

Umedia, the film finance and production group, is now rebranding its divisions – production/financing arm uFilm, internationals sales uConnect, VFX company uFX and Benelux distribution outfit uDream – under the single Umedia name.

Founder and CEO Adrian Politowksi confirmed the news on the eve of the company’s 10th anniversary.

The group is headquartered in Brussels with offices in Los Angeles, London and Paris.

The rebranding comes as the company is expanding its production work by developing a new slate of majority financed projects in house – aiming to do five to eight English-language features per year. Umedia also plans to work more with third parties to finance and produce films.

The slate includes Universal War One, a sci-fi epic written by The A Team screenwriter Skip Woods; and an English-language remake of French hit Priceless.

“We are entering a new phase in the company’s growth where we are evolving into a true European studio,” said Politowski. “We have switched over to being an internationally minded group that is fully and vertically integrated, able to take high budget film projects through the entire film process, from development and production, to sales and distribution.”

“Using the Belgian system is no longer a need but rather an opportunity for us to continue to bring production to the country,” Politowski added.  “We are now offering a lot of producers the chance to develop their own projects and then let Umedia finance and sell it for them. Typically, we’re bringing anywhere between 70 and 100% of the budget. Few companies understand financing and coproduction like Umedia does and this enables us to not only get a film financed, but secure the producer a strong upside position. We have vast experience, having boarded more than 200 films and our key collaborators bring their expertise and contacts into the mix.”

The company has worked on films including The Artist and Olivier Dahan’s forthcoming Grace of Monaco.