The former Pinewood and APA International exec will steer the German studio closer into an expanding global network after a recent takeover by U.S. equity firm TPG Real Estate Partners.

BY ETAN VLESSING, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 

Cinespace Studios has made leadership changes at Germany’s Studio Babelsberg, including installing former Pinewood International executive vp Andy Weltman as co-CEO and co-chairman.

Weltman, a veteran of Hollywood deal-making, is also a former managing director of APA International, where he oversaw the U.S. talent agency’s U.K. and European operations. Weltman, Ashley Rice, co-managing partner and president of Cinespace, and André Bleeker, CFO of Germany’s A&O Hotels and Hostels, will also join co-CEO Carl L. Woebcken and COO Christoph Fisser in running the German film studio via its management board.

Marius Schwarz, former CFO of Studio Babelsberg, stepped down on June 30, 2022 and will continue to serve the studio as an advisor. And Ty Warren, former head of global production at Netflix and recently installed on the Cinespace board, joins Studio Babelsberg’s supervisory board alongside existing members Michael Abel and Maria Terzini.

Warren replaces Matthias Platzeck, who stepped down from his position for personal reasons. The management shuffle at Studio Babelsberg, which is majority owned by Cinespace, aims to bring the German film studio closer to its Toronto-based parent after Cinespace was taken over by U.S. equity firm TPG Real Estate Partners.

“With its unique heritage and the expanded reach that the Cinespace platform brings, Studio Babelsberg is well positioned to continue to attract world-class productions to Germany and create significant job growth and economic benefits for the German film and television production sector as well as the Potsdam region,” Weltman said in a statement on Friday.

In Jan. 2022, TPG completed a deal to acquire majority control of the European studio complex to expand Cinespace’s studio network amid a streaming content boom.

Woebcken and Fisser retain a minority stake in the Potsdam-based studio complex, which is the country’s largest film studio and has worked on such Hollywood productions as Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.