Thierry Lacaze to head Wild Bunch Distribution

Thierry Lacaze has been named the new head of Wild Bunch Distribution (WBD), replacing Jean-Philippe Tirel who has left to set up his own acquisitions outfit, parent company Wild Bunch has announced.  

Lacaze, who comes from Pathé Distribution where he was the head of marketing from 2009, will take the reins at WBD in mid-May. Prior to Pathé, he was the head of the Fox Searchlight label in France. 

The rest of the existing team – comprising Nathalie Cieutat as head of sales, Susanna Nilstam as marketing director and Jérôme Rougier as head of marketing and international acquisitions – will remain in place.

“Thierry will start supervising future releases as soon as he arrives,” Wild Bunch said in a statement.

The company – which focuses on auteur fare, edgy genre titles and world cinema – is distributing 22 titles in 2013.

Upcoming films on the slate include Lebanese Ziad Doueri’s controversial terrorism drama The Attack [pictured], Laurent Tuel’s Tour de France comedy La Grande Boucle, Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, Claire Denis’ The Bastards and James Gray’s The Immigrant.

Lacaze’s arrival at WBD follows Tirel’s amical departure last month which was announced at the beginning of the year. He has left to set up Selective Films which will focus on acquiring international titles for the French market.

Tirel had been with WBD since it was created out of the acquisition of Philippe Godeau’s Pan Europeene in 2004 and re-branded in 2006.

According to Rentrak data for the 12 months up to the end of April, the distributor ranks tenth in France with a 4.28% share of the market, representing 7.9 million entries.