Secuoya Studios, the ambitious Los Ángeles and Madrid-based film-TV production outfit, is joining forces with Sergio Pizzolante, a former HBO and Sony Pictures executive, to launch international sales operation Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution.
Pizzolante will serve as the president and a minority shareholder of the new company, fruit of a partnership by Secuoya Studios with Pizzolante’s Miami-based indie content and talent agency Ctmobs.
The initiative will act as a commercial arm for all the audiovisual projects at Secuoya, “aimed to achieve the integration of the studios’ contents at all of stages, from creation, production and post-production, to national and international distribution, taking in production services and tax incentives’ structuring and management, to compete at the highest level with a true value offer in a market in constant evolution,” Secuoya announced in a statement Monday.
With headquarters in Miami and offices in México, Madrid and Los Ángeles, Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution looks like proving a key player in the studio’s strategic pillars.
It will aim to prime strong pre-sales when license international distribution windows, creating pre-financing for productions with their own IPs. Also it will make the most of all Secuoya Studios IPs through subsequent international sales. It will also aim to consolidate Secuoya Studios’ attraction of new global IPs.
Pizzolante’s arrival at Secuoya Studios’ will create added value in the capturing and developing of new content, the company noted.
His extensive background in the North American and Latin American markets will further key synergies and secure important operations with potential international clients, it added.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Sergio Pizzolante as head of Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution. With his vast experience, there is no one better qualified to be responsible for delivering our unique storytelling to the global market,” said Secuoya Studios president, James Costos.
“Over the past several years we have committed ourselves to building a corporate leadership team, comprised of the best in class business affairs and financial executives, a professional studio services team, and we have invested heavily in our talented creative and development teams across unscripted, fiction and features. Now, at this time, with the rapid growth of our exciting slate of projects, the incorporation of Sergio is the realization of a critical milestone within the evolution of Secuoya Studios,” Costos added.
“Joining forces with Secuoya Studios is an achievement for me in every way: We both share the spirit of creating high-quality content, primarily in Spanish, aimed at audiences around the world,” Pizzolante said.
He went on: “The quality and excellence of Secuoya Studios, its powerful portfolio of products and services, its operational capacity, Madrid Content City and the entire team, as well as having the support of Raúl Berdonés, Pablo Jimeno [respectively Secuoya Group president and CEO] and James Costos, will allow me to accelerate the identification, development, production and distribution of series, films, documentaries and premium formats”.
“At the same time, it will open the door even more for A Plus talents to participate in projects on a global scale,” said.
Between 1997 and 2015, Pizzolante worked for HBO Latin America Group, OLE Communications and Sony Pictures Networks Latin America & Brazil. In 2016, he embarked on an independent career forming Ctmobs, a studio focused on connecting content, talent, IPs and strategic partners in the development, production and distribution of IPs with Latin DNA and global ambition.
Pizzolante executive produced the series “Nicky Jam: El Ganador” as well as the documentary “Maluma: Lo que era, lo que soy, lo que seré” and the series “Zorro.” Development partners include Pantaya, EndemolShine Boomdog, Jessy Terrero, La Industria Inc., Sony Music U.S. Latin, NSQ Studios, Andy Kaplan and Secuoya Studios. CTMOBS has consulting clients such as OLE Communications.
According to Secuoya Studios estimations, the content investment of the top eight TV platforms will maintain its growth path over the last five years, and is expected to exceed $100 billion in the U.S.. alone.
This demand for premium content’s demand can be extrapolated to other international markets, one of the most attractive being that of Spanish-speaking audiences, with more than 600 million potential clients.
The launch of Secuoya Studios’ commercial and distribution division will consolidate the company’s business model and its audiovisual services, as it develops a broad portfolio of contents.
Marketed and internationally distributed by Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution, Secuoya’s portfolio take in several unscripted projects such as documentary “La Moncloa,” following the workaday of Spanish socialist government president Pedro Sánchez, directed by Curro Sánchez Varela, plus further new entertainment formats, all of them based on a local premise, but with a global ambitions.
The fiction area is developing big IPs such as “Zorro,” in collaboration with John Gertz, and “Montecristo,” partnering with William Levy Entertainment. Other fiction projects are “La Isla,” with Tiki Group; “School of Americas,” based on a novel by Lesley Gill, and “Los 39.”
Secuoya’s significant commitment to film production, teaming with Eduardo Campoy’s Álamo Producciones Audiovisuales, encompasses titles such as “El Test,” “La piel en llamas,” “Héroes de barrio” and “Todos lo hacen.”
