International sales manager, Anton
- Studied for a masters in media at ESCP Business School in Paris
- Founded an events and artists agency in 2017 while studying in Montreal
Rei’s dogged deal-making since joining Anton in 2023 helped seal instrumental pre-sales on heist thriller Fuze, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James, which kickstarted production. But film was not initially on the cards for the Marseille native, who started out at cosmetics company L’Oreal and in fashion. “I didn’t like it at all,” she recalls. “I wanted to work in something I cared about, and create something I felt passionate about.”
An MSc in media at ESCP Business School in Paris followed, which led to an internship at Studiocanal, where Rei worked for four years, rising to sales executive. It was here that senior sales executive Anne Cherel proved a significant inspiration. “I thought [sales] was so amazing and dynamic, to have this international point of view and to work with so many different people, distributors and cultures,” she says.
Pan-European outfit Anton was therefore a good fit for Rei, joining in 2023 based initially out of the Berlin office. She now splits her time between Paris and Berlin, and sells across 20 countries, covering Eastern Europe, Asia, the Baltics and increasingly France.
Rei is passionate about animation and has enjoyed selling stop-motion features Savages (co-repped with Gebeka International) and Memoir Of A Snail (co-repped with Charades). “In a lot of territories, it’s difficult for stop-motion to break through. Every sale on those projects was a victory.”
Building personal connections is instrumental to how Rei does business, with a little black book of more than 200 buyer contacts. “Everything is about relationships,” she says. “This industry is a hub of talent, and anything can emerge from the smallest interaction.”
Contact: Celine Rei
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