Olivier Lelardoux joins Blue Spirit as Managing Director. He arrives on March 1.

He will take over responsibilities from Éric Jacquot in January 2023. After accompanying Olivier Lelardoux during the transition period, Éric Jacquot will leave the company, which he created in 2004, in June 2023.

Olivier Lelardoux will notably be in charge of developing Newen Kids & Family (Blue Spirit’s holding company, renamed at the start of the year), a unit dedicated to seeking out new talent and production companies, in France and abroad, in line with policy actively developed by the Newen group in other areas.

Since 2005, Olivier Lelardoux has been Studio Director and Associate Producer at Cyber Group Studios. He has directed more than 700 episodes of a dozen animation series, including Gigantosaurus, Zou and The Chronicles of Zorro.

 

In line with growing activity, Blue Spirit recently reviewed its structure, which is now organized around 4 Associate Managing Directors:

  • Camille Gérard, director of productions at Blue Spirit since 2007, is appointed AMD of studios (Paris, Angoulême, Montreal) and head of executive productions (France and international).
  • Sandrine Vellieux, who arrived in 2020, holds the position of CFO and is now AMD in charge of financial and administrative affairs.
  • Frantz Delbecque, technical director, becomes AMD of Blue Spirit Lab, overseeing all technical resources and developments.
  • Armelle Glorennec, CEO of Blue Spirit Productions, newly accompanied by Justine Francke, will now focus on delegate production (series and feature films), which has intensified in recent years.

Over the past 4 years, production has increased dramatically, with series including “Arthur and the Children of the Round Table, Season 2,” “Alice & Lewis, Season 2,” “Mille Bornes,” development of  the series “The Borrowers,” “Splat & Seymour, Season 2,” “Nightmares are in Trouble,” and “The Baker Street Four” in co-production with Folivari.  Blue Spirit works successfully with the largest major French and international channels, including TF1, France Télévisions, Canal +, Rai, ARD, Warner, and Globo.

In parallel, Blue Spirit has strengthened its development of feature films, some of which go into production in 2023. Four films are currently in development: “The Legend of (almost) King Arthur” directed by Jean-Luc François, “The Ballad of Yaya” directed by Cédric Babouche, “Cut and Run,”  and “Colleen et Amélia” (in co-production with Syon in Canada).

The Blue Spirit studios (Angoulême, Montreal and Paris) have experienced similarly strong growth with the manufacture of in-house productions, series helmed by French producers (Gigantosaurus, Samsam Season 3, Ernest & Célestine, Runes…), but also thanks to the executive production of ambitious international series such as Gremlins (Warner) and What if (Marvel). The studios employ over 300 people.