In a major executive shuffle in the German film industry, Dirk Schweitzer, currently CEO of film studio MMC, is taking over as interim head of Vuelta Germany, the German division of Jerome Levy’s Vuelta Group, replacing outgoing CEO Al Munteanu.
Munteanu, who took over at Vuelta Germany last year after Vuelta merged its German distributor and rights company Telepool with Munteanu’s SquareOne, will take over SquareOne’s production division, SquareOne Productions, which he is rebranding as BriskPace Studios. Munteanu remains a shareholder of Vuelta and will serve as a senior advisor.
At Vuelta, Munteanu oversaw the merger and integration of the group’s German operations, including SquareOne, Telepool, and EuroVideo and the restructuring of Telepool´s international sales arm, Global Screen, under Vuelta’s French division Playtime. The Vuelta Germany team also struck a new booking and billing deal with German distributor Constantin Film for its slate of theatrical films. The merged Telepool-SquareOne outfit represents a library of more than 1,000 titles for German-speaking Europe, including such features as The Imitation Game, Olympus Has Fallen, and French hit Intouchables.
“From the outset, Al was a leading architect of our strategy in Germany,” Levy said in a statement. “Vuelta Germany was instrumental in our 2024 acquisition of Telepool and the successful integration of the operations. While we will miss his leadership, we embrace his passion for production and wish him all the best for his future journey.”
“I am extremely proud of Vuelta Germany’s achievements under Jerome Levy´s stewardship and am certain of the continued success of this thriving pan-European production and distribution group of like-minded professionals,” added Munteanu. “With my years of production, sales, and distribution, expertise, I see only opportunity in these pivotal times for entrepreneurially-spirited, distribution-savvy producers to create outstanding work out of Europe.”
Before joining MMC, Schweitzer held senior positions at several German media groups, acting as CEO of German producer/distributor Splendid Media, as managing director of Tele-München Group, and as head of program acquisitions and sales at German commercial broadcaster RTL Group.
Backed by private equity investment, Vuelta has been on a European-wide acquisition spree, gobbling up local production and distribution companies. Alongside Germany’s SquareOne and Telepoool, the group currently owns The Indiana Production & Piper Film Distribution in Italy, France’s Pan, WW Entertainment in the Benelux, Scanbox Entertainment in Scandinavia and sales agency Playtime, which incorporates Films Boutique, Film Constellation, Global Screen and Be for Films.