Pulse Films co-founder Thomas Benski, producer of Gangs of London, American Honey and The Witch, has unveiled his new media venture: Lumina, a cross-border outfit with operations in London, New York, Paris, and Los Angeles.
The company is billed as a “talent and IP-led media group” and boasts of “mid-eight figure” capital support from first-round funders including Magnus Rausing’s BFK, Charles Dorfman’s Dorfman Media Holdings and SVS Holdings.
“The current media landscape is in flux, and we believe this is the ideal time to build future-facing companies,” says Benski. “Drawing from our rich past experience, we are building in the present to shape the future.”
The group says it will focus on talent-driven studios, production, kids & family content, and consumer brands. Lumina has already partnered with Carrousel Studios, the European-based operation launched by Benski together with French star Omar Sy (Lupin) and Fast X director Louis Leterrier earlier this year, as well as with Yann Demange’s Wayward Films (’71, Top Boy). On the kids and family side, Lumina is backing gaming studio Creators Corp. and the kids IP business Strike. It’s consumer division is backing brands including Metie and DAACI. Lumina’s portfolio will include a “multi-disciplinary” film studio, Magna Studios, headed up by Marisa Clifford and Davud Karbassioun, which aims to producer across branded content, documentaries and scripted.
“At the heart of this partnership, Louis, Thomas and I saw a big opportunity in building an ambitious talent-led business that can leverage the current market dynamics,” said Carrousel co-founder Omar Sy in a statement. “Lumina & Thomas not only bring capital but a strategic and operational approach that offers artists like us the resources and expertise to go out and realize our ambitions at a time when talent is too often not at the table to benefit from a projects’ long-term success.”
By self-financing film and TV projects, Lumina hopes to achieve greater creative and financial autonomy for its investors and creative partners. Benski is drawing on his experience in building Pulse into a major multi-disciplinary studio which had revenues of $150m+ when Benski exited in 2021.
In an ambitious projection, Lumina said it aims to be profitable in its first year of operation, delivering $55 million+ in revenue across the group, and that it had already started producing its first IP and long-form projects which will be announced shortly and will deliver early next year.
Magnus Rausing of BFK, one of Lumina’s investors, said: “Lumina’s collective knowledge in investing and operating businesses makes them the ideal platform for pioneering a new approach that both supports talent to create and own valuable IP while driving innovation across its companies – creatively, strategically and technologically. I was looking for a vehicle to build a media and entertainment footprint and Lumina is absolutely the right platform given its inventive model so I’m excited to help it become a defining player in the ecosystem.”
“With content at the heart of everything today, I strongly believe talent, brands and IP are the multipliers,” Benski explained. “Our thesis is that there is a big opportunity to decouple the IP creation process by building studios and production companies around major talent.”
