KESHET STUDIOS ENTERS SUNDANCE WITH NEW DEVELOPMENT DEAL WITH TECH ENTREPRENEUR ORI ALLON’S WHITE LODGE PRODUCTIONS

Deal Comes as Studio’s Two-Year-Old Film Division Returns to the Festival with Its Second Consecutive Feature in the US Dramatic Competition, SAVE YOURSELVES!

Keshet Studios, the US production arm of Keshet International (KI), is partnering with tech entrepreneur Dr. Ori Allon and his recently established White Lodge Productions (WLP) to jointly develop projects globally.

The new relationship comes as the two-year-old film unit of Keshet Studios enters Sundance with its second consecutive film in the US dramatic competition, the pre-apocalyptic comedy SAVE YOURSELVES!. Starring John Reynolds (Search Party) and Sunita Mani (G.L.O.W.) as a hip Brooklyn couple who head upstate to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with themselves, SAVE YOURSELVES! will make its world premiere January 25 at the Library Center Theatre.

Dr. Allon is a tech entrepreneur who sold successful companies to both Google and Twitter. Most recently Allon founded and is the Executive Chairman of Compass, the technology driven real estate company that has revolutionized the real estate industry. Since its founding in 2012, Compass has expanded across 300+ offices nationwide and is valued at over $6.4 billion dollars.

Dr. Allon established White Lodge Productions in 2018 to produce highly quality content for the 21st-century audience in the changing tech landscape of the media world.

Keshet Studios’ film co-heads Mandy Tagger Brockey and Adi Ezroni, who will manage the international development vehicle, said, “We are on the lookout at Sundance and throughout the year for compelling IP and energetic writers, directors and producers to collaborate with. This partnership with a true innovator like Dr.Allon is the perfect vehicle for us to nurture projects within the changing media landscape, with more opportunity to let the stories pave our path forward.”

Added Allon, “Technology continues to evolve and is changing how we consume information. Together with Keshet, White Lodge Productions is looking to partner with writers who will enthusiastically embrace the modern and expanding media landscape to create smart and innovative content.”

From a standing start, Keshet Studios’ film unit has quickly established itself as an annual presence in the Sundance competition. It returns this year with SAVE YOURSELVES!, the first full-length feature from the writing-directing team of Eleanor Wilson and Alex Fischer.

Having been offered full financing for their feature elsewhere, filmmakers Wilson and Fischer feel they have benefited from working with Keshet Studios, “Getting to make SAVE YOURSELVES! with Mandy, Adi and Keshet Studios was truly a dream. They had a plan from the beginning, we never had to worry about a thing aside from the creative, and they were more than just producers— we honestly think of them as mentors. It’s our first feature so there's been a lot to navigate, a lot that could have easily derailed us with a million balls to juggle at any given time. With this team we feel like we were in great hands and we hope the stars align to work together again (if not we’ll have to forcibly align them).”

Keshet Studios’ first feature THE SOUND OF SILENCE, directed by Michael Tyburski and starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones, had its World Premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the US dramatic competition. It was released by IFC and Sony Pictures Worldwide. Endeavor Content is handling sales for SAVE YOURSELVES! with Film Constellation.

The uptake in film activity follows the recent expansion of Keshet Studios’ President Peter Traugott’s role to include both the film and unscripted television divisions, in addition to the scripted television unit he has overseen since the US studio’s inception five years ago.