HISTORY OF YORAM GROSS COMPANIES
Yoram Gross Film Studio
Yoram and Sandra set up their very first film studio "Yoram Gross Films" in Israel in 1962.
In 1968, by now in Australia, Yoram and Sandra founded "Yoram Gross Film Studios" in Paddington, which quickly evolved into a highly respected producer of animation for cinema, television and video, distributed worldwide.
Yoram first made international headlines with the animated film Dot and the Kangaroo in 1977, featuring the studio’s trademark technique of animation over a live action background. Dot and the Kangaroo proved to be a universal and timeless success, and led to the production of a further eight Dot films over the following seventeen years, which were delivered to 27 territories internationally.
In 1992, Yoram Gross Film Studios diversified into making animated series for television. The first series, Blinky Bill, totalling 52 half hour episodes, achieved significant international success, both as a broadcasting and as a merchandising property and was a major licensing success in Europe.
Following Blinky Bill, Yoram Gross co-produced the series Tabaluga (26 half hours) with EM.TV & Merchandising AG, which in 1998 quickly became the top-rating children’s show in Germany. An animated series adapting Australia’s best-known kangaroo, Skippy, was completed in 1998, whereupon the studio commenced the animation of Flipper and Lopaka. Both series comprise 26 half hour episodes.
Partnership with Village Roadshow
In 1996 Yoram Gross Film Studios formed a partnership with Australian media group Village Roadshow, which provided opportunities for further expansion. Village Roadshow bought 50% of the company shares and instituted a Board of Directors. Greg Coote and Graham Burke joined the board. The partners agreed to co-produce ten animated series of 26 half-hours each over five years, to be produced in the Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow studio in Sydney.
The 1990’s witnessed an even greater international profile for Yoram Gross, whose television series had by then reached a worldwide audience involving an array of international co-producers. In his career, Yoram's co-production partners have included the UK’s BBC; Sesame Workshop of the USA; ARD and ZDF of Germany; TeleImages S.A. and Millimages of France; EM.TV and VIDEAL Gmbh of Germany; Nelvana Ltd of Canada; as well as Australia’s ABC, Network 9 and The Seven Network.
Partnership with EM.TV & Merchandising AG
In March 1999, EM.TV acquired from Village Roadshow Limited, a 50% share ownership in Yoram Gross Film Studios. Thus, Yoram Gross-EM.TV Pty Ltd was created. This new partnership marked the transition for YGEM from a family business to a strong player on the world stage. EM.TV and YGEM committed to the production of 10 new series over the next 5 years.
The new millennium cemented Yoram Gross-EM.TV’s position as the number one family entertainment business in Australia and supplier of quality children’s content to the world. The Studio completed a second series of both Flipper & Lopaka and Tabaluga as well as a brand new series, Old Tom.
The Seven Network currently programs a dedicated block of television produced by Yoram Gross - a fulfilment of its commitment to screen quality ‘C classified’ drama for the children of Australia. Yoram Gross-EM.TV also launched Junior in Australia, which holds a dedicated block of programming on The Seven Network plus spot shows on both Nickelodeon and FoxKids.
Diversifying to become Australia’s leader in children’s entertainment
Utilising global distribution channels and maximising local opportunities, the company launched a licensing division, YGEM Licensing. The division manages all of the marketing and licensing activities in the areas of merchandising, home video and DVD, interactive products, stage shows & character costumes, cause marketing and publicity & promotions. It held representation of The Jim Henson catalogue, the Junior catalogue (over 1,500 hours of kids and family programming and ancillary rights), the Land Before Time plus, of course, Yoram Gross branded content.
Fully owned subsidiary and creative multimedia production company created in 1994, Forest Interactive, creates state of the art 2D and 3D multimedia products using its own up-to-the-minute programming and content creation team. The company is constantly developing new children’s and adult CD-Rom titles, web games, internet sites & content packages, software solutions, interactive DVDs and DVD board games.
The company also expanded into live action television, producing Bambaloo, a preschool puppetry show with The Seven Network and The Jim Henson Company.
After being a member of the Board for twenty years, Guy Gross joined the company in 2004 as Deputy Chairman, in charge of overseeing all the production projects for the studio, as well as being directly involved with company management.
Yoram Gross sells to EM.TV
In January 2006 Yoram and his family sold their 50% shareholding in Yoram Gross-EM.TV to the other 50% shareholder, EM.Entertainment, an affiliated company to the media company EM.TV AG, listed on the German stock exchange. Yoram Gross EM.TV was rebranded as a new company, Flying Bark Productions, with the intent to expand the company’s position and business both locally and internationally as a core mission.
Yoram Gross Films
In July 2006 Yoram and Sandra launched Yoram Gross Films, a boutique-type studio in Paddington, a stone’s throw away from the very studio where they began making films in Australia. Yoram and Sandra continued to make films for children, producing further episodes of the highly successful show, Art Alive, and other short form television series, ’That’s Not Right!’, ’The Young Musicians’ and "Prof. Filutek" among others.
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