Daniel Marquet, one of the most familiar faces at film markets, is to take a new role within the ever-changing StudioCanal group. From January he becomes head of corporate development (directeur delegue au developpement). A strategic role, answerable to StudioCanal principals Vincent Grimond and Michel Schmidt, he will be responsible for building out the studio structure across Europe.

StudioCanal will not appoint a senior seller above John Kochman to replace Marquet. Instead the role of head of sales will pass to Belinda Melendes, who is currently based within the Los Angeles office.

This minor depletion of the sales force is expected to be counterbalanced by a reduced need to sell titles within Europe as StudioCanal extends its network of production and distribution activities. However, as usual, the alliances within the network are expected to be allowed a degree of freedom and national subsidiaries will not be obliged to take every picture flowing from the StudioCanal parent.