Federation brings in M6 movie exec

French studio Federation Entertainment has brought in Lionel Uzan, a former senior executive at broadcaster M6’s movie subsidiary SND, as partner and MD.

Lionel Uzan

Reporting to Federation’s founder Pascal Breton, Uzan will be based in Paris, supervising the full production and distribution activities of Federation in France, Europe and the US.

Uzan was most recently director of acquisitions, production, and international distribution at SND, one of the top independent film production and distribution companies in France, releasing about 20 films per year. It holds the rights to movies such as the Twilight franchise and Iron Man.

Federation was set up last year by Pascal Breton, a former CEO and partner at Zodiak, with the aim of acting as a studio, partnering with independent producers and handling international distribution of the resulting content.

It entered the market with a bang when it was commissioned to make Netflix’s first French series, Marseille, which is currently in production.

Federation also coproduced and distributes Canal+’s ambitious spy drama Le Bureau des Légendes. The series has just launched in France, produced by The Olligarchs, the company run by Alex Berger and filmmaker Eric Rochant.

More recently it stepped in to coproduce Mediaset’s 12-part Mafia series Lucky Luciano. The studio also has ambitions to move into other genres, including animation.

Breton was the co-founder of French prodco Marathon, which he merged with another high-profile French company, Télé Images, in 2006, building a major production group that was sold to Zodiak a year later.

He then became a partner and CEO at Zodiak, which he left two years ago, selling his shares to raise the funds to launch Federation.