Mumbai: Média-Participations in France has strengthened the team with the appointment of Laurent Panissier as 3D general supervisor and Xavier Morelli as 2D executive producer for its audiovisual production division.

Earlier this month, the company had appointed Lila Hannou as director of development and strategy. Managing director Caroline Audebert said it was essential to strengthen and restructure the team to take on the challenges ahead of the studio. "The fact that professionals such as Laurent and Xavier have joined us, after Lila, gives me great confidence in our ability to speed up the studio’s transformation, that we started several months ago, and complete the ambitious productions that we are planning for the coming years," she added.

A graduate of the Arts Décoratifs in multimedia and CGI in 2001, Laurent Panissier was previously associated with BUF. He worked in the special effects production team as a graphic artist as well as supervisor, alongside Pierre Buffin and his teams for 10 years. In 2011, he joined Mac Guff Lign as supervisor.

Xavier Morelli has 25 years of experience in animation production. He began his career as a production assistant in 1996 and joined Ellipse in 1998 as assistant director and production manager. In 2004, he joined Xilam Animation, as assistant director. In 2012, he directed the 3D production of the feature "The Prince" and "The 108 Demons" for Same Player Productions, before joining Futurikon in 2015 where he dealt with the production of the studio’s series. After a period at Bayard animation, he joined Cyber Group Studios as production manager. In 2019, he was production manager at Ankama animations on the feature "Princess Dragon."

Média-Participations houses Ellipsanime Productions, Dargaud Media, Dupuis Edition and Audiovisuel and Ellipse Studio.