Fremantle COO Andrea Scrosati explains why their six films in Venice reflect a unique business model (EXCLUSIVE)

Last year Andrea Scrosati – who is Group COO and Continental Europe CEO of Fremantle – was at Venice with two films. This year, Fremantle released six Lido photos, including three in competition, which is a larger contingent than any of the US studios or streamers.

The Fremantle business model, which involves a group of companies primarily across Europe that they wholly own or are majority investors in, has paid off on the cinema side. Their production has increased "from 8 to 32 films delivered in two years", explains Scrosati.

And the multi-pronged company's Venetian lineup - which includes Luca Guadagnino's "Bones and All" , "Emanuele Crialese" "L'Immensità" and "The Eternal Daughter" by Joanna Hogg reflect this.

Scrosati spoke to Variety in Venice about his vision for how Fremantle reproduces a wide range of films from its organic agglomeration of businesses.

So what is the Fremantle model?

It's a model where you acquire or invest in independent labels. Our job is to make them stronger and bigger. I think the diversity of businesses we own and have invested in, in terms of geography and cultural focus, is quite unique. And there are times when it all comes together in interesting ways. Venice is one of them.

We have six movie screenings here. What is interesting is the diversity, because it shows a lot. "Bones and All" is an Italian production with an Italian director. But it's an English film with an international cast [Timothée Chalamet]. It's a genre film, but also YA. With "L'Immensità", you have an Italian director shooting a film in Italian with a world star [Penelope Cruz]. A very personal, very intimate story. With "The Eternal Daughter" [in which Tilda Swinton plays two roles] it's a completely different approach, obviously coming from Element Pictures [the Dublin-based shingle co-directed by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe].

Then you have "Siccità" by Paolo Virzì, a world story, but also a very Italian film . And in addition you have the two films that we have at Horizons, “Amanda” and “Notte Fantasma”, which are in partnership with another producer. They show the approach we have to investing in new talent and also supporting new producers.

So it's decentralized. Is this the strategy?

Yes. What is happening today [in Venice] is the result of this strategy. It's happening faster than expected. I think the reason is our model. If we applied the historical model of the American studios, finally entirely centralized, with the green light of a single person, we could not have gone from 8 to 32 films delivered in two years.

Do the various companies in Fremantle talk to each other?

What was fascinating yesterday at the premiere of "L'Immensità" is that we Of course we had the film producers, Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa from Wildside. But we also had Lorenzo Mieli [head of The Apartment], Luca Bernabei [head of Lux Vide] and the Element team. Today we are having lunch with all the writers from all the teams, including Element, who will be brainstorming.

On the one hand this model speeds up [production] because there is a lot of creative exchange, but there are also a lot of exchanges in terms of infrastructure. On the other hand, because there is creative independence and entrepreneurship, it is a question of giving these labels the possibility of being entrepreneurial. This is the reason for the acceleration and Venice is a concrete demonstration of it.

The main thing for us is our producers. It's the model. And I think we have an original model. The amount of centralized infrastructure we give them is very high. We share talent offers. We share the business...