Twelve international film distributors have formed Lokia, a network that will coordinate early project selection, revenue forecasts and IP licensing across their territories, Deadline reported as an exclusive on Friday 6 November 2026, on the eve of the American Film Market. Lokia’s own site and a same-day Headliner.nl account match the partner list and the founders’ pitch. The companies remain separate financial entities and will keep buying for their own markets; what they want from the network is larger IP stakes and earlier coordination than classic pre-sales allow.
Key facts
- Network: Lokia, Luxembourg-registered (per Headliner); 12 founding distribution partners across Europe, Asia and airline/shipping rights
- Founders: Michael Favelle (Odin’s Eye Entertainment / Odin’s Eye Animation, Australia) and Heiko Nemmert (formerly Baby Giant, Germany); Russell Brown (ex-Marvel / Valiant licensing) as chief capital and monetisation officer
- Tool: Lokia OS is live for partner onboarding; partners submit projects, distributors return forecasts, financiers see the aggregated picture
- AFM: exhibits at Fairmont Suite 411; not expected to acquire as a single buyer at this market; joint acquisitions planned later
- Collection: strategic partnership with Fintage House for reporting and collection accounts; Robbert Aarts joins the Lokia board
For sales agents and producers, the practical question is whether twelve mid-market buyers sharing forecasts through one system can replace the firm territory guarantees that used to close independent finance plans. Lokia’s answer is coordination plus licensing planned from day one.
Who is in the network
Deadline and Headliner name the same twelve partners: Wild Bunch Germany GmbH / Wild Bunch Austria (Germany and Austria); Praesens-Film (Switzerland); PRIS Audiovisuals SA (Portugal); Feelgood Entertainment (Greece); Kazoo Films (UK and Ireland); Noori Pictures (South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam); Filmhouse (Israel); Blitz Group (former Yugoslavia); Donart Film (Czech Republic); Mars Production (Turkey); and Horizon Distribution (global airlines and shipping). That is a buyer map weighted to continental Europe and selected Asian territories, with no North American theatrical partner named in the launch.
Favelle conceived the network and co-founded it with Nemmert. Brown, formerly executive vice president of worldwide licensing at Marvel Enterprises and later president of consumer products at Valiant Entertainment, is leading talks with independent licensing agencies by territory and with potential global category partners in toys, games and publishing. Licensing-partner announcements are expected later in the fourth quarter of 2026, Deadline says. The AFM lists Favelle as Lokia’s chief creative officer and president of distribution on an 11 November AFM House panel on rights and new distribution models.
Why they say they formed it
The founders frame Lokia as a response to consolidation and to the decline of the international pre-sales model. Partners keep buying individually, but want larger IP stakes and the ability to monetise and acquire more aggressively once the network’s operating habits settle. Multiple projects are already in development on a Lokia slate; none are ready to be named.
Animation is an explicit early use case. Favelle told Deadline that without worldwide theatrical guarantees before financing, and without extra finance for IP extension, licensing campaigns for independent animated features are not realistic. Coordinating theatrical and licensing partners, and offering them investment across territories and rights categories, is how he describes a scalable, repeatable pipeline for animation and live action alike. Yong Ho Lee of Noori Pictures said the Korean market has not recovered after the pandemic and that the partnership lets the company expand beyond its home territory while competing with global platforms.
What Lokia OS is meant to do
Nemmert supervised the build of Lokia OS and runs operations and production. The platform, which the company says is live at os.lokia.net for admitted partners, is the shared working environment: project intake, distributor forecasts, financing and licensing views, assets and reporting. Nemmert’s claim, carried by Deadline, is that partners see projects early, that their forecasts carry weight in how a film is financed and produced, and that they get a network-wide view rather than working territory by territory in isolation.
Fintage House will oversee reporting and manage collection accounts. Co-chairman Robbert Aarts joins Lokia’s board. That is a conventional collection-account partner for an unconventional buyer club; it does not, by itself, prove the OS will change how deals close.
What this means at AFM and after
Lokia will take a suite at the Fairmont Miramar for the market now under way, but Deadline says the group is not expected to acquire as one entity at this AFM. Joint acquisitions are the plan further down the road. Until then, the network’s value for sellers is informational: earlier access to twelve buyers’ forecasts, and a pitch that licensing sits beside theatrical from financing rather than after delivery.
Comparable buyer groupings in recent years include the Vuelta distribution group (2023), a MadRiver financing cluster of foreign distributors (2024) and the Creatives producers’ alliance. None of those replaced pre-sales; they tried to rebuild bargaining power around it. Lokia’s differentiator, on the founders’ own account, is the live OS plus a consumer-products officer hired from Marvel and Valiant.
AFM packages already moving on FilmBunch this week include Antonio Banderas boarding Mare Nostrum for HanWay, John Gore Studios on A Waiter in Paris, and Lionsgate’s animated John Wick prequel: the sort of IP and sales activity Lokia says its licensing layer is built to catch earlier.
Still undisclosed: any capital commitment by the twelve partners; the titles on the development slate; which licensing agents have signed; whether a North American theatrical distributor will join; and how Lokia’s “investment opportunities in the IP” will be documented in contracts. FilmBunch has not seen a term sheet or the Lokia OS interface.
Our reading
Twelve mid-sized buyers sharing a forecast tool is not the same as a worldwide MG. The launch matters if the OS turns early distributor estimates into financeable numbers that banks, funds and licensors will underwrite, and if joint acquisition actually starts after this AFM. Until a named title closes through Lokia with a published rights map and a licensing partner attached, Friday’s announcement is a coordination claim, not a new money source. The next evidence is the first public slate title, the Q4 licensing-partner list, and whether any AFM deal is later recharacterised as a Lokia-network acquisition. More under Deals and Markets.
Sources
- Deadline (Andreas Wiseman, 6 November 2026; exclusive on Lokia formation, 12 partners, founders, Lokia OS, Fintage House, AFM Suite 411)
- Lokia official site (network description, principals, Lokia OS)
- Headliner.nl (6 November 2026; second report of the launch, Luxembourg registration, partner list)
- American Film Market sessions (Michael Favelle listed as Lokia CCO for 11 November AFM House panel)