Cinespace Studios has made leadership changes at German Studio Babelsberg, including installing former Pinewood International executive vp Andy Weltman as co-CEO and co-chair.
Weltman, a Hollywood deal veteran, is also a former managing director of APA International, where he oversaw the US talent agency’s operations in the UK and Europe. Weltman, Ashley Rice, co-managing partner and president of Cinespace, and André Bleeker, CFO of Germany’s A&O Hotels and Hostels, will also co-CEO Carl L. Woebcken and COO Christoph Fisser run the studio. Germany through the management board .
Marius Schwarz, former chief financial officer of Studio Babelsberg, resigns on June 30, 2022 and will continue to serve the studio as an advisor. And Ty Warren, a former global executive producer at Netflix and recently appointed to the Cinespace board, joins Studio Babelsberg’s supervisory board alongside current members Michael Abel and Maria Terzini.
Warren replaces Matthias Platzeck, who resigned for personal reasons. The management shuffle at Studio Babelsberg, which is largely owned by Cinespace, aims to bring the German studio closer to its Toronto-based parent company after Cinespace was taken over by holding company TPG Real Estate Partners of America.
“With the unique heritage and expansive reach that the Cinespace platform offers, Studio Babelsberg is well positioned to continue to attract world-class productions to Germany and generate job growth and benefits. significant economic benefit to the German film and television production sector as well as the Potsdam Region,” Weltman said in a statement Friday.
In January 2022, TPG completed a deal to acquire majority control of the European studio complex to expand Cinespace’s studio network amid a streaming content boom.
Woebcken and Fisser hold a minority stake in the Potsdam-based studio complex, which is the country’s largest studio and has worked on Hollywood productions such as Steven Spielberg. Bridge of SpiesBy Wes Anderson Grand Budapest Hotel and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
