Sikelia Productions, formerly known as Cappa Productions and Cappa Films, is an American film production company established by

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

in 1989. It has produced over 40 different television shows, documentaries, and films. Some of the most notable are ''

Shutter Island ''Shutter Island'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published by HarperCollins in April 2003. It is about a U.S. Marshal who goes to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is ...

'' (2010), '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (2013), ''

Silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the ce ...

'' (2016) and ''

The Irishman ''The Irishman'' (subtitled onscreen as ''I Heard You Paint Houses'') is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book '' I Heard You Paint Hou ...

'' (2019). The company is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

In 1989

founded his own

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

with Cappa Productions. "Cappa" is the maiden name of his mother,

Catherine Scorsese Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa; April 16, 1912 – January 6, 1997) was an American actress. She began acting when her son Martin Scorsese cast her in his short film ''It's Not Just You, Murray!''. Scorsese was of Italian descent and freque ...

, who regularly played roles in his films. In the 1990s, his (ex-) wife

Barbara De Fina Barbara De Fina (born 1946) is an American film producer. She has been called an "integral component" who has made "critical contributions" as producer of many of Martin Scorsese's films. Biography Her grandfather was from Sicily and her grandm ...

also worked as a producer for the company. The two also sometimes released films under the label De Fina – Cappa. In the early 1990s, the company entered into a partnership with

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. In 1996, the deal was terminated and, at the behest of

Michael Ovitz Michael Steven Ovitz (born December 14, 1946) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was a talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as preside ...

, Scorsese's former agent, the company began a partnership with

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. The name of the company was changed to Sikelia Productions in 2003. "Sikelia" is the Greek name for

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, the Italian region where Scorsese's grandparents came from. In the 2010s, the company had a partnership agreement with

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. In 2020, Sikelia entered a

first-look deal A first-look deal is any contract containing a clause granting, usually for a fee or other consideration that covers a specified period of time, a pre-emption right, right of first refusal, or right of first offer (also called a right of first neg ...

with

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

.'
Martin Scorsese Makes Apple First-Look Film & Television Deal For His Sikelia Productions Banner
'' Deadline.com , August 11, 2020

References

External links

www.sikelia-films.com
1989 establishments in New York City American companies established in 1989 Film production companies of the United States Martin Scorsese Mass media companies based in New York City Mass media companies established in 1989 Television production companies of the United States {{film-company-stub