Variety's International Achievement in Film Honoree Tarak Ben Ammar Soars With Italy's Eagle Pictures Pacts and Local Hits Like ‘Boy With Pink Trousers'
Tarak Ben Ammar's long-standing film industry ties are rooted in Italy, where his Eagle Pictures is currently the top independent film distributor and a growing production force.
The Franco-Tunisian film and TV entrepreneur spent part of his teens in Rome during the 1960s when his father was the Tunisian ambassador to Italy. 'It was thanks to those years that I fell in love with cinema,' he says, reminiscing about the Eternal City's Cinema Archimede theater.
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After building the Tunisian film business from nothing, and spending decades forging relationships and making deals with some of the top names in the global entertainment business, Ben Ammar returned to Italy. In October 2007, Ben Ammar bought indie distributor Eagle Pictures, which had gone belly up. It was then that he said to himself, 'OK, I'll learn how to be a distributor.' He recalls that he had previously only dabbled in distribution, most notably when Quinta took French rights to Mel Gibson's blockbuster 'The Passion of the Christ' in 2004.
'One of his biggest assets — compared to the company's previous management — is that he's very international; he knows everybody,' says Eagle's head of acquisitions and co-productions Maria Grazia Vairo, who was already with the shingle when Ben Ammar bought it from an Italian bank and other entities.
Since then, Eagle has become Ben Ammar's flagship film business outfit. It co-owns France's Studios de Paris, home of 'Emily in Paris.' Eagle is also a shareholder along with Warner Bros. Pictures in Spyglass Media Group, which acquired the Weinstein Co.'s film and TV library in a bankruptcy sale alongside Andy Mitchell's Lantern Asset Management. Eagle Pictures now boasts a library of some 2,800 titles.
As a distributor, Ben Ammar has taken Eagle to the next level through two key steps. First, in 2020, he inked a deal with Paramount Pictures' then-CEO Jim Gianopulos, 'who really understood that we could be a good partner,' becoming Paramount's Italian theatrical distributor. Then, in 2023, Eagle signed a similar deal with Sony. But with them, 'I took it a step further,' he says, becoming a production partner with Sony on high-profile titles including Antoine Fuqua's 'The Equalizer 3,' starring Denzel Washington. That film was shot in Italy, tapping into the country's generous tax rebate.
'The fact that we've partnered with Eagle for a major market like Italy says so much because Sony generally prefers to have our own team up and running,' says Steven O'Dell, Sony president of internationalttheatrical distribution. 'When it comes to major markets, Italy is the only market that we're confident enough in a partnership to release independently and not through our own office.'
In the past year, Eagle has released such high-profile pics as multiple Oscar nominee 'Conclave,' while it has blockbuster 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' kicking off a busy summer with such U.S. pics as 'Karate Kid Legends' and '28 Years Later.'
The Italian banner has pacts with such indie distributors as MadRiver, DeAPlaneta (Spain), IDC Distribution (Latin America), Italia Film (Middle East), Leonine Studios (Germany and Austria), Shochiku (Japan), SND (France) and Unicorn Media (Eastern Europe).
More recently, Eagle has been ramping up local productions.Last year at Cannes, it bought Italian remake rights to French smash hit 'A Little Something Extra.'
Eagle scored Italy's biggest local hit of 2024 with Margherita Ferri's teen drama 'The Boy With Pink Trousers,' about a 15-year-old who took his own life after enduring bullying at school and online. In terms of ticket sales, it's even beat Hollywood heavyweights such as 'Wicked,' 'Dune 2,' 'Gladiator 2' and 'Venom 3.'
Samuele Carrino stars alongside Claudia Pandolfi, who has since become an advocate for anti-bullying initiatives.
Eagle initially released the movie Nov. 7, 2024, on 380 screens and increased to 550 screens the following week after receiving calls from enthused exhibitors. 'We quickly realized something special was happening and we increased our release plans. We've had it on as many screens as 'Gladiator 2,' Ben Ammar told Variety in December 2024.
The true tale has grossed more than $10 million and 'made a statement that we're in business to make good Italian movies that also move the needle socially, culturally, emotionally,' says Ben Ammar, using words that evoke Rossellini's spirit.
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