Média-Participations expands production team with Xilam Group hire

Audrey Serre

French entertainment group Média-Participations has appointed Audrey Serre, the former deputy development director at Xilam Group, to its audiovisual production team.

Serre, who joins the firm on 12 April, is the third recent producer hire by Média-Participations, following the appointments of Gaëlle Guiny, a former development director at Gaumont Animation, and Pierre Reyssat, a former at producer at Onyx Films/On Entertainment, in February.

The appointments follow the arrival of Lila Hannou last September, in the role of director of development and strategy at the division. Guiny, Reyssat and Serre join in-house producer Aubane Fillon and external producers Katell France and Maia Tubiana. with all reporting to Hannou.

The Média-Participation group includes firms Ellipsanime Productions, Dargaud Media, Dupuis Edition & Audiovisuel and is behind shows such as The Smurfs, The Fox-Badger Family and Kid Lucky. It is headed up by Caroline Audebert, who commented: “Our development strategy, in both France and the international market, is very ambitious in terms of diversification and growth in our productions, as much in series as in features. Quite naturally this is supported by a policy of recruiting talents”.

“At Média-Participations, we want to address all targets, by adapting iconic and/or more recent properties from the outstanding catalogue of 4000 IPs from within the Group or from other publishers. But we are also looking for original creations”, added Hannou.

“With this in mind, each producer can develop projects depending on their own affinities and market demands. It’s a wonderful opportunity to have all these different personalities, with rich and varied backgrounds, to take on this challenge.”