Anne-Cécile Rolland has been named head of acquisitions for France’s Pyramide Distribution and Pyramide International, taking over for Christine Ravet who will step down from her position at the end of the year.
Ravet is retiring after a more than 40-year career in auteur cinema. Before joining Pyramide, she was director of acquisitions at mk2 Films and a member of the selection committee for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
She was notably behind Pyramide’s acquisitions of Laura Poitras’ Venice-winning All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Amjad Al Rasheed’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week title Inshallah A Boy for both international sales and French distribution, and Teona Mitevska’s Berlin feature God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya for both French release and global sales.
Rolland was formerly director of distribution at Pretty Pictures and Condor where she worked on titles including Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Antoine Russbach’s Those Who Work and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace.
She has also headed the Fiction Aid Fund for France’s Brittany Region for the past four years. Following what she calls “a very enriching experience devoted to cinema in the region,” Rolland said she is “thrilled to return to distribution, particularly to a solid company like Pyramide with a cinephile approach, and in the key position of acquisitions that is more strategically crucial than ever in today’s world.”
She will officially step into her new role in February 2024, ahead of EFM (Feburary 15-21), but after Unifrance’s annual French cinema-focused Rendez-Vous in Paris set for January 16-23.
Pyramide’s CEO Eric Lagesse and director of distribution Roxane Arnold said: “We are delighted to welcome Anne-Cécile Rolland, whose talent and professionalism are unquestionable. With this recruitment, we aim to reaffirm our position and ambition as an independent distributor, alongside other companies in DIRE [Network of European film distributors], at a time when auteur cinema must be defended more than ever.”
Founded in 1989, Pyramide is one of France’s top indie distributors releasing around 12-15 films per year. The company’s sales arm Pyramide International has had a strong festival run this year with features like Venice and TIFF title Spirit Of Ecstasy, Locarno’s The Path Of Excellence, Venice’s On The Pulse, Dormitory and God Is A Woman, and Cannes’ Last Summer, Youth (Spring), Inshallah A Boy, Marguerite’s Theorem and Ama Gloria.
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