It has been an energising six months for newly formed sales agent Global Constellation, as UK-headquartered sales and production outfit Film Constellation and Germany’s Global Screen cemented their integration under the parenthood of Vuelta, the pan-European production, distribution and sales juggernaut.
Film Constellation, founded by Fabien Westerhoff in 2016, is not the first UK sales agent to bolster its ambitions by becoming part of a larger international group, and in today’s increasingly borderless and challenging independent film landscape, won’t be the last. Others have looked to the US for backing — the UK’s HanWay Films was acquired by the US’s Cohen Media Group in 2022, and Signature teamed up with US firm Capstone to form Capture earlier this year.
Looking to Europe came instinctively for Amsterdam-based Westerhoff, who is of French, German and British origin. “It feels natural, it’s something that’s part of our DNA. We are rooted within a European ecosystem,” he says.
Film Constellation’s acquisition has been gradual. France’s Playtime was one of its founding backers. “They have been partners in the business from the very first day and when Playtime was acquired by Vuelta [in 2023], indirectly, we became part of the group,” explains Westerhoff.
Game changer
The major shift came in April this year, with Film Constellation being fully acquired by Vuelta and merged with Germany-based international sales outfit Global Screen. “I’ve enjoyed building a company, building a team, building a slate,” says Westerhoff, now managing director of the theatrical film division at Global Constellation. The acquisition has enabled these ambitions to continue, but at a bigger scale.
Global Constellation has an office in Munich, with the team comprising nine people across sales, acquisitions, marketing, festivals and business affairs for film and television. Film Constellation was previously a team of six, with marketing director Chloe Tai leaving ahead of the merger and Edward Parodi, director of acquisitions, also departing. France-based Léo Teste remains director of sales with Global Constellation attending AFM as part of the Unifrance umbrella. Ulrike Schröder, based in Munich, is MD of Global Constellation’s TV division.
The merger has meant more focus on family films and animation, with Mission Granny, The Last Whale Singer and Jim Queen on the AFM slate. A second strand of the slate comprises cast-led, English-language packages such as Rania Attieh’s Queen Of The Falls, starring Pamela Anderson and Guy Pearce, and John Michael McDonagh’s Fear Is The Rider with Abbey Lee.
Thirdly, there is European arthouse, a core tenet from the Film Constellation days, but now with a tilt towards German films, such as Jan Holoubek’s Second World War noir thriller Wild, Wild East and Ulrike Tony Vahl’s directorial debut Crux. Global Constellation’s UK connections have not been lost either. The slate’s prestige festival section boasts two UK films that won prizes in Venice Critics’ Week: Imran Perretta’s Ish, which won the audience award, and Oscar Hudson’s Straight Circle, which took the grand prize for best film. Broken English also played at Venice, and has sold widely, including Vue Lumiere for UK-Ireland.
Global Constellation can now tap into the benefit of centralised support from the Vuelta group across production finance, financial controlling and producer reporting. Westerhoff spends one week a month in Munich, as well as frequent trips to Paris and London. The wider Vuelta group meets regularly at markets. “Many of the distributors are clients of ours anyway,” he notes.
The Vuelta group includes production companies such as Italy’s Indiana Production and distributors including WW Entertainment in Benelux. So will Global Constellation now prioritise deal-making with companies inside the group?
“We actively seek out filmmakers whose work resonates across multiple companies in the group, exploring how we can collectively support their projects and, in turn, how each project can strengthen the group as a whole. [Vuelta’s chief creative officer] David Atlan-Jackson is a great champion of nurturing that ecosystem across the different businesses,” explains Westerhoff. “It’s a very enriching shorthand relationship with each other.”
One title to have grown within the Vuelta group is Crux, which is being distributed by Vuelta Germany — Vuelta’s German film distribution arm, born from the merger of SquareOne and Telepool. “It is a benefit that we can bring distribution to the table as part of conversations around how to put finance together,” says Westerhoff. However, he stresses Global Constellation “continues to operate in an open market” and Vuelta-owned distributors will not automatically have first dibs on projects. “We will do what’s best for the project, and for the producers of the project.”
No comments yet