Vixens is positioning itself as a bridge between auteur cinema and commercial viability, bringing luxury brands like Saint Laurent into high-profile projects while supporting emerging voices from diverse backgrounds.
Sources close to the company say the private financing model is generating buzz — and skepticism. 'Traditional equity is already mapped by CAA, WME, UTA,' Farkas admitted, which means Vixens is essentially courting wealthy family offices with minimal film industry scrutiny.
Vixens helped complete financing for two Cannes films: "Full Phil" (starring Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson) and "Paper Tiger" (starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver). The company was founded a decade ago by Gary Farkas, Clément Lepoutre and Olivier Muller.
Vixens has built an empire on commercial work — roughly 40 to 50 projects annually via its Phantasm arm — and now it's deploying that capital into cinema with fewer guardrails than traditional studios. The Cannes slate is impressive on paper. But the real story might be who's writing the checks.
Paris-based production company Vixens is heading into this year's Cannes Film Festival with its most ambitious slate yet, and the company's rise reads like a playbook for bypassing Hollywood's gatekeepers. Founded by Gary Farkas, Clément Lepoutre and Olivier Muller, Vixens has quietly become a go-to financier for A-list talent — including Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver on James Gray's "Paper Tiger" and Kristen Stewart alongside Woody Harrelson on Quentin Dupieux's "Full Phil." Both films will premiere at Cannes, with Vixens having helped complete financing on each project.
That's not small potatoes for a company that started a decade ago with a micro-budget U.S. film called "Sam Was Here." What makes Vixens unusual isn't just its celebrity connections — it's how the company raises money. Rather than chasing traditional equity routes already dominated by CAA, WME, and UTA, Farkas told Variety the company went "off-market with private funds that don't usually invest in films." Translation: family offices and wealthy investors whose primary business has nothing to do with cinema.
It's a model that's attracting attention for both its ambition and its lack of mainstream industry oversight. The company also brings brands like Saint Laurent, Lacoste, and AMI directly into auteur projects as co-producers — a practice it's engaged in for roughly seven years across around 10 films. The six-project slate unveiled Tuesday spans languages, budgets, and genres: Jessy Moussallem's Arabic-language debut "Faux Bijoux" (co-written by "Capernaum" scribe Jihad Hojeily) follows a Lebanese family attempting to preserve appearances after the Beirut port explosion; Kim Chapiron is attached to an untitled thriller about illegal beauty injections featuring young women operating as underground Botox providers in France; Martin Scali — who worked as second-unit director on Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City" and "The Phoenician Scheme" — will direct noir thriller "Rubis." International offerings include Nima Nourizadeh's rap-world English-language project (described as inspired by young U.S. rappers "who blow up, live very furtive lives, stay anchored in gang culture and often end up killed") and Czech director Eva Vik's psychological horror "Nymph," co-produced with Vincent Maraval's Get Away.
The company's roots trace back to Phantasm, a commercials and music video powerhouse producing roughly 40 to 50 projects annually — including campaigns for Hermès, Prada, an Olivia Rodrigo music video directed by Petra Collins at the Château de Versailles, and a recent Weeknd visual directed by Gaspar Noé. That commercial engine funds Vixens' cinema ambitions without the typical financing pressures. "We're not held hostage to financing sources for development," Muller explained. "It lets us develop ambitious projects without the pressure." Whether that lack of traditional oversight translates into artistic freedom or financial recklessness remains to be seen — but with Isabelle Huppert attached to Yann Demange's "Lineage" and Le Pacte already signed on for French distribution of "Faux Bijoux," Vixens is clearly playing for keeps.
