Guillaume Lacroix: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, Cannes’s new official partner, is bringing the world’s biggest film festival in the metaverse with Epic Games’ hit vidgame Fortnite. Under the ground-breaking experiment, the festival’s famous backdrop will be recreated in Fortnite, allowing gamers to experience Cannes through the eyes of three different characters: a journalist, who will father material and conduct interview; an actor, who will do an audition with a major director, take part in a photocall and walk the red carpet; or a director who will have to find the pages for a script that have been lost across the city, send them to a producer, gather the team together and climb the steps of the Palais for a film premiere.

Brut Post TikTok Subscriber MilestoneFrance’s young adult-focused, online news-skewed platform Brut is sounding its own bell after hitting 10 million subscribers on TikTok, making it the top French publisher on the Chinese-owned platform. The subscriber gains also make the platform the second most followed European news publisher on TikTok after the Daily Mail. “Making news on TikTok was a challenge. A successful bet with 10 million subscribers, which makes us the leading news media in France on a platform historically focused on entertainment,” said TikTok Editor in Chief Laurent Lucas in a release. “This symbolic milestone reflects the success of an editorial policy developed especially for new uses of information consumption in France and around the world.”  Launched by Guillaume Lacroix and Renaud le Van Kim in 2016, the Paris-based platform employs some 250 people. It has had its financial ups and down over its existence but reported last year that it had gone into profit in the final quarter of 2023.  The company is also pushing into the U.S., Africa and India.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brut, the influential digital media publisher which became one of the main partners for the Cannes Film Festival last year, has just finalized its fourth funding round for approximately $40 million. The company, founded by Guillaume Lacroix, Renaud Le Van Kim and Laurent Lucas six years ago, has enlisted a pair of powerful financial backers: CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping company owned by billionaire businessman Rodolphe Saadé, which also recently nabbed 10% of France’s second biggest commercial network M6, and the daily newspaper La Provence; and MoonPay, a leading Miami-based financial service company for web3 whose investors include former tennis star Maria Sharapova, as well as Snoop Dogg, Drake and Justin Bieber, among others. Aryeh B. Bourkoff’s LionTree advised the deal with MoonPay.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, an official media partner of the Cannes Film Festival, is breaking new ground by partnering with Emily Yang, a celebrated digital artist known as Pplpleasr, to release 75 Cannes-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on May 2. The proceeds will benefit the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.The values-driven digital startup, whose backers include James Murdoch and François-Henri Pinault, is building the operation, named “75 Producer Pass NFTs,” to help make the film industry more inclusive to young female creators.“After teaming with the global video game franchise Fortnite to put Cannes in the metaverse, we’re excited to have the Cannes Film Festival brand activated for greater good and launch this pioneering NFT-fundraiser with Pplpleaser who share the same values as us,” said Guillaume Lacroix, who co-founded Brut with veteran producer Renaud le Van Kim in 2016.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, the rising digital media startup whose backers include James Murdoch and François-Henri Pinault, is set to bring the Cannes Film Festival into Epic Games’ Fortnite, as well as grow its global presence and creator economy platform.The Fortnite operation is one of the many young adult-skewing initiatives spearheaded by Brut as part of its new media partnership with the Cannes Film Festival.Brut is also planning to host a House of Creators at Cannes and will bring about 100 creators from across the world to the Croisette where they’ll meet high-profile filmmakers, actors and agents in small groups.Guillaume Lacroix, who co-founded Brut with veteran producer Renaud le Van Kim in 2016, said the idea behind the House of Creators was to “bridge the gap between the film and digital-native industries and allow these talented young creators to grow and upscale in the long term.” “Creators [on social media] have often been opposed to traditional content creators, but the truth is that if filmmakers who are now in their 40s and 50s had had smart phone like the ones we have today back when they started out, they would have all jumped on the opportunity to create content instead of using old VHS tapes,” said Lacroix.Brut is also developing blockchain tools to put creators in direct touch with their fans and allow them to maximize their revenue.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, the rising digital media startup whose backers include James Murdoch and François-Henri Pinault, is set to bring the Cannes Film Festival into Epic Games’ Fortnight, as well as grow its global presence and creator economy platform.The Fortnight operation is one of the many young adult-skewing initiatives spearheaded by Brut as part of its new media partnership with the Cannes Film Festival.Brut is also planning to host a House of Creators at Cannes and will bring about 100 creators from across the world to the Croisette where they’ll meet high-profile filmmakers, actors and agents in small groups.Guillaume Lacroix, who co-founded Brut with veteran producer Renaud le Van Kim in 2016, said the idea behind the House of Creators was to “bridge the gap between the film and digital-native industries and allow these talented young creators to grow and upscale in the long term.” “Creators (on social media) have often been opposed to traditional content creators, but the truth is that if filmmakers who are now in their forties and fifties had had smart phone like the ones we have today back when they started out, they would have all jumped on the opportunity to create content instead of using old VHS tapes,” said Lacroix.Brut is also developing blockchain tools to put creators in direct touch with their fans and allow them to maximize their revenue.