Keshet Int’l recruits Paramount & Armoza execs as sales team expands

L-R: Elena Antonini & Adi Brukner

Keshet International (KI) has bolstered its distribution arm with the appointment of Paramount’s Elena Antonini as VP of sales for Iberia and Lat Am and Armoza Formats’ Adi Brukner to sales manager for Asia, Africa and Southeastern Europe.

Based in Buenos Aires, Antonini is taking on responsibility for leading KI’s sales of formats, scripted and unscripted finished tape across Latin America, the Hispanic-speaking networks in the US, as well as Spain and Portugal.

Antonini joins KI following a five-year tenure at Paramount, where she most recently held the position of director of content sales & co-productions, and prior to that spent 10 years with Dori Media. Reporting to KI’s MD of distribution, Kelly Wright, Antonini started working with the company at the beginning of this month.

Brukner, meanwhile, arrives at KI after two years a sales executive at Armoza Formats. Based in Israel, Brukner takes on responsibility for sales of KI’s formats, scripted and unscripted finished tape across Asia, Africa, and Southeastern Europe (Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel) and will also report to Wright.

“With her experience in both distribution and co-production in Latin America, we are so pleased that Elena has joined the KI Sales team, alongside Adi. Elena’s extensive network and know-how will prove invaluable to growing our distribution, development and production business in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets,” said Wright.

Among the latest titles being brought to market by Keshet International at MIPCOM next month are psychological thriller Trust No One, Crackit Productions’ Save Our Sperm and Flicker Productions’ one-off documentaries Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family and Wayne Couzens: Hidden In Plain Sight.

Keshet production rejig

The sales team expansion comes just a week after KI launched a new business on the scripted production side, based in Germany, to house the operations of existing Keshet Tresor Fiction (KTF) label. The new German unit will continue to focus on local adaptations and house shows such as Unter Freunden Stirbt Man Nicht  (You Don’t Die Among Friends), a remake of Stockholm for RTL+, and ARD Degeto’s How To Dad.

In July, KI sold its majority holding in UK-based producer group Greenbird Media to Scotland’s STV Studios for $27m, handing it stakes in 15 production companies including A&E After Dark outfit Crackit Productions and Lego Masters firm Tuesday’s Child Television, which Greenbird had majority owned.

KI had acquired its 60% stake in Greenbird in 2018, buying out the stake previously held by BBC Studios.