Wide House

Overview

Wide House was the documentary sales division of Paris-based Wide Management, founded in 2010 by Loïc Magneron and headed by Anaïs Clanet. The division specialized in international sales of feature documentaries, TV formats, and documentary series, with particular strength in European public broadcaster relationships. Wide House was created as a specialty arm within Wide Management, which was already representing more than 20 new fiction features per year and had a library of 500+ fiction titles.

In 2020, Anaïs Clanet departed Wide House to launch Reservoir Docs, a new documentary sales company in partnership with Frederic Corvez's Urban Group. The Wide House catalog moved with Clanet to Reservoir Docs. Wide Management retains a library of approximately 300 documentary titles, but the active documentary sales operation formerly known as Wide House now operates as Reservoir Docs.

This entry covers the Wide House operation as it existed from 2010 to 2020 and its continuation as Reservoir Docs. Filmmakers seeking documentary sales representation from the team that built Wide House should contact Reservoir Docs directly.

History and the European Documentary Sales Market

Wide House was created in 2010 when Wide Management identified documentary as a growth area requiring dedicated expertise. Magneron appointed Anaïs Clanet, who had been with Wide Management since 2006, to head the division. Under Clanet's leadership, Wide House built a catalog of 300+ documentaries and became one of the more active documentary-focused sales companies in the Paris market, operating alongside Doc & Film International and Alpha Violet.

The division attended IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Sheffield DocFest, Cannes' documentary-adjacent sections, and major markets including AFM and the Marche du Film. Wide House's focus on documentary gave it deep knowledge of the broadcaster licensing market, a revenue stream that theatrical-only distributors often underutilize.

European public broadcasters are among the most important funders and distributors of documentary film globally. Arte (the Franco-German cultural channel), BBC, NDR, ZDF, ORF, SVT, DR, and NRK collectively finance and broadcast hundreds of documentary features per year, providing both production financing through co-production and distribution revenue through licensing fees. Wide House's broadcaster relationships gave it the ability to pursue this revenue stream systematically across multiple European territories.

Transition to Reservoir Docs (2020)

In June 2020, Anaïs Clanet launched Reservoir Docs within Frederic Corvez's Urban Group, effectively continuing the Wide House operation under a new name and corporate structure. The Wide House catalog of documentary titles transferred to Reservoir Docs. Clanet described the transition as not a new company but "the old set-up but with a new name and a new shareholder in Corvez."

Reservoir Docs continues the Wide House tradition of specializing in cultural and political documentary. Notable titles on the Reservoir Docs slate include Mark Cousins' A Sudden Glimpse of Deeper Things (narrated by Tilda Swinton, winner of the Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe), The Cemetery of Cinema (Berlin Panorama 2023), Green is the New Red (IDFA 2024), Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 (directed by Goran Hugo Olsson), The Eichmann Trial, and Mrs Robinson (a documentary about the first female President of Ireland).

Clanet has noted that the documentary market has become significantly tighter since the pandemic. In a 2024 Cineuropa interview, she stated that international buyers have gone from acquiring around 15 documentaries per month from international sales agencies to just one, and that she now takes 5 to 9 documentaries per year onto her slate, compared to 15 in 2020. This contraction means documentary filmmakers face a more competitive acquisition environment than existed during Wide House's peak years.

Notable Wide House Titles and Sales

During its operation from 2010 to 2020, Wide House represented documentaries that screened at major festivals and sold to broadcasters worldwide. Key titles and deals included:

• Two in the Wave (Emmanuel Laurent) - a portrait of Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffat that sold to the UK (New Wave Films), US (Kino Lorber), Canada (FunFilm Distribution), Japan (Cetera International), Germany (Mouna), and Italy (Cinecitta Luce)
• The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Goran Hugo Olsson) - sold worldwide, a major critical and commercial success
• I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) - Oscar-nominated documentary that sold to multiple territories
• Bantú Mama (2021) - international sales via Wide
• El Gusto (Safinez Bousbia) - documentary about Algerian chaabi music

The company also developed the Eye on Films label, dedicated to first films, with 70 partners including 40 festivals and 70 distributors, supported by the European Union's Media Mundus program.

Documentary Broadcaster Pre-Sale Financing

For documentary filmmakers whose subjects have international resonance, broadcaster pre-sales negotiated through a sales agent like Reservoir Docs (the continuation of Wide House) can contribute meaningfully to a film's financing budget before production is complete. This pre-sale financing mechanism is standard practice in the European documentary industry.

Arte, the most active co-financier in the European documentary space, favors films that engage seriously with cultural, historical, and social subjects and that meet high cinematic standards. Pre-sale deals with Arte, BBC, ZDF, and other European broadcasters typically involve a licensing fee in exchange for territorial broadcast rights, with the sales agent taking a 20-25% commission on the pre-sale amount.

For filmmakers outside France whose documentary projects could benefit from European broadcaster co-financing, engaging a sales agent with established broadcaster relationships during the development or early production stage is the standard approach. Cold outreach to broadcasters directly without a sales agent intermediary is rarely effective, as commissioning editors prefer to work through established sales agent channels.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Wide House is now Reservoir Docs: Filmmakers seeking the team, catalog, and market relationships that operated under the Wide House banner should contact Reservoir Docs directly. Anaïs Clanet continues to head the operation. Wide Management retains its 300-title documentary library but the active documentary sales operation has moved.

For documentary filmmakers: Reservoir Docs (formerly Wide House) acquires 5 to 9 documentaries per year, down from 15 in 2020. The company looks for documentaries with strong international subjects, established directors, and the potential for theatrical release alongside broadcaster licensing. Films that premiere at IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Sheffield DocFest, or Cannes are the most likely acquisition targets.

Market conditions: The documentary sales market has contracted significantly since 2020. Clanet has stated that platforms now produce so much content internally that they need far less external documentary acquisition. Filmmakers should temper revenue expectations for international documentary sales and focus on building strong broadcaster pre-sale packages rather than relying on post-completion sales alone.

Broadcaster pre-sales vs. post-completion sales: The most reliable documentary financing comes from broadcaster pre-sales arranged during production, not from post-completion sales to distributors. A sales agent like Reservoir Docs can help structure pre-sales with Arte, BBC, ZDF, and other European broadcasters, but this requires engaging the sales agent during development or early production, not after the film is finished.

See Also

For the parent company and its fiction sales operation, see Wide Management in this directory. For how broadcaster licensing fits into the documentary distribution strategy alongside theatrical and streaming, see Distribution Deals Explained. To model the revenue from European broadcaster licensing combined with theatrical and streaming sales for a documentary, use the Revenue Forecast Calculator. For documentary film festival strategy and which festivals attract documentary sales agents, see the Film Festivals Directory.