Lionsgate’s local-language film consortium GlobalGate Entertainment has added the Philippines’ Viva Communications to its worldwide consortium of 13 production and distribution partners.
Other Globalgate partners include Televisa, Gaumont, Nordisk, Tobis, Rai, Kadokawa, Lotte, TME, Paris Filmes, CineColombia/Dynamo and Belga. Lionsgate launched GlobalGate three years ago to produce and distribute local-language films in markets around the world to capitalize on the fact that the market share of local-language films is expanding. GlobalGate is co-founded and headed by Paul Presburger, William Pfeiffer and Clifford Werber,
Since its launch in 1981, Viva Communications has been a multimedia distributor of Hollywood and local-language content in The Philippines with affiliated labels including Viva Films, Viva International Pictures, Viva Live, Viva Networks, Viva and Vicor Records, Viva Music Publishing and Viva Artists Agency. Local films released by Viva include “Kita Kita,” “Sid & Aya,” “Aurora,” “Miss Granny,” “Fantastika” and “Never Not Love You.”
Viva Communications chairman and CEO Vicente R. del Rosario, Jr. said, “William Pfeiffer has been a great friend, both professionally and personally, and we look forward to working with him alongside the rest of the Globalgate leadership team, Clifford Werber, Paul Presburger and Meg Thomson, to expand our global footprint. We’re confident our strategic positioning alongside Globalgate and its top-tier partners around the world will enhance Viva Communications’ dominance in the Philippines.”
Pfeiffer, Werber and Presburger said, “Viva Communications, a closely-knit, world-class content production and distribution company, is a perfect fit for Globalgate’s consortium. Together with Vic and the entire Viva family, we’ll focus on production of mainstream Filipino films while augmenting Globalgate’s formidable inventory of commercial intellectual property sourced from our consortium partners around the world.”