French production and sales outfit mk2 films has signed a multi-year financing deal with the Finnish private equity fund IPR.VC to bankroll a slate of new projects, the two companies unveiled on Thursday.
The new capital will come in handy for mk2, which is looking to build on recent crossover success, including its co-productions The Worst Person in the World from director Joachim Trier, and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, as well as Justine Triet’s Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall and Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, both of which mk2 sold worldwide.
In Cannes this year, mk2 unveiled its most ambitious slate ever, with several English-language projects, including Belly of the Beast, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers follow-up, starring Ben Stiller and Colin Farrell, and The Zellner Brothers’ Alpha Gang starring Cate Blanchett. Among its features already in production include Trier’s Sentimental Value, his re-teaming with Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve and co-starring Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård, The Secret Agent from Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau), and Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Mk2 recently bolstered its executive team, hiring former Protagonist Pictures managing director Vanessa Saal, who is charged with leading the company’s U.K. expansion and its new focus on English-language projects.
The deal further cements IPR.VC’s position as one of the leading investors in auteur cinema. The Helsinki and London-based fund manager has raised more than $200 million for upwards of 50 film and TV productions, teaming with the likes of A24 on Civil War, MaXXXine, and Beau is Afraid, and with XYZ Films on such features as Blackberry and The Wasp.
MK2 CEO Nathanael Karmitz and Fionnuala Jamison, managing director, said the IPR.VC deal would “allow us to scale our efforts while maintaining the artistic integrity that defines mk2 films and our commitment to bold, visionary filmmaking.”
