Burgeoning Los Angeles-based production company Upgrade Productions has bolstered its growing team with two new high-profile profile hires.
The company has signed Akshay Mehta as Executive Vice President, Content Strategy and Business Development, and Vanessa Saal as Executive Vice President, Production & Distribution.
Seasoned production and sales execs Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier created Upgrade Productions at the end of 2021 to develop and produce premium local language productions for a global audience.
Mehta and Saal will both report directly to Brodlie and Kier.
Mehta will be responsible for the execution of Upgrade’s overall content strategy and seek out new partnership opportunities.
He is taking the lead on managing these relationships, structuring the financing for the slate and was instrumental in negotiating Upgrade’s equity investment from Constantin Film.
Working closely with Brodlie and Kier to lead the company in growth, he will run day-to-day operations as a senior member of...
The company has signed Akshay Mehta as Executive Vice President, Content Strategy and Business Development, and Vanessa Saal as Executive Vice President, Production & Distribution.
Seasoned production and sales execs Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier created Upgrade Productions at the end of 2021 to develop and produce premium local language productions for a global audience.
Mehta and Saal will both report directly to Brodlie and Kier.
Mehta will be responsible for the execution of Upgrade’s overall content strategy and seek out new partnership opportunities.
He is taking the lead on managing these relationships, structuring the financing for the slate and was instrumental in negotiating Upgrade’s equity investment from Constantin Film.
Working closely with Brodlie and Kier to lead the company in growth, he will run day-to-day operations as a senior member of...
- 11/15/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Former Protagonist executive Saal will head production and distribution while Mehta leads content strategy and business development.
LA-based Upgrade Productions has appointed Vanessa Saal as executive vice president of production and distribution and Akshay Mehta as executive vice president of content strategy and business development.
Saal will be based in the UK and will spearhead Upgrade’s global distribution strategy while building out its European operations and ventures.
She most recently served as managing director, sales and distribution, at Protagonist Pictures, where she worked from 2014 to 2020. Other previous roles include senior vice president of international sales at Studiocanal and a founding executive at Kinology.
LA-based Upgrade Productions has appointed Vanessa Saal as executive vice president of production and distribution and Akshay Mehta as executive vice president of content strategy and business development.
Saal will be based in the UK and will spearhead Upgrade’s global distribution strategy while building out its European operations and ventures.
She most recently served as managing director, sales and distribution, at Protagonist Pictures, where she worked from 2014 to 2020. Other previous roles include senior vice president of international sales at Studiocanal and a founding executive at Kinology.
- 11/15/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Music artist to give film away for free following premiere.
Musician and animal rights activist Moby will open the 29th Slamdance Film Festival with his feature directorial debut Punk Rock Vegan Movie on January 20 2023 and has vowed to give the film away for free after the premiere.
The festival, which runs in Park City and Salt Lake City from January 20-26 and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23-29, has also announced a partnership with the University of Utah dedicated to the first in-person showcase of the Unstoppable Program, a free showcase of “raw and innovative filmmaking”.
Punk Rock...
Musician and animal rights activist Moby will open the 29th Slamdance Film Festival with his feature directorial debut Punk Rock Vegan Movie on January 20 2023 and has vowed to give the film away for free after the premiere.
The festival, which runs in Park City and Salt Lake City from January 20-26 and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23-29, has also announced a partnership with the University of Utah dedicated to the first in-person showcase of the Unstoppable Program, a free showcase of “raw and innovative filmmaking”.
Punk Rock...
- 11/15/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Luma Features has launched an independent film company under the oversee of CEO & Chief Creative Payam Shohadai and COO Grady Gamble with a string of projects, and new hires.
Luma’s first movie that’s come together and set for filming in January is The Silence of Mercy directed by The Runaways and The Handmaid’s Tale episodic director Floria Sigismondi. The movie, which is produced by Shohadai and executive produced by Gamble in partnership with The Black List Production’s Franklin Leonard and indie producer Marc Joubert, follows a woman who chooses a life enclosed, to face her personal demons as she’s challenged to break the walls of morality.
Annabelle Wallis, who just wrapped James Wan’s Malignant, stars in a screenplay written by Chris Basler. The script was developed as part of The Black List’s Features Writers Lab. Sigismondi is repped by WME,...
Luma’s first movie that’s come together and set for filming in January is The Silence of Mercy directed by The Runaways and The Handmaid’s Tale episodic director Floria Sigismondi. The movie, which is produced by Shohadai and executive produced by Gamble in partnership with The Black List Production’s Franklin Leonard and indie producer Marc Joubert, follows a woman who chooses a life enclosed, to face her personal demons as she’s challenged to break the walls of morality.
Annabelle Wallis, who just wrapped James Wan’s Malignant, stars in a screenplay written by Chris Basler. The script was developed as part of The Black List’s Features Writers Lab. Sigismondi is repped by WME,...
- 12/11/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Akshay Mehta, Sarah Schweitzman set to join agency.
CAA on Wednesday announced two new hires to the film finance and sales group led by Roeg Sutherland.
Akshay Mehta and Sarah Schweitzman have been brought in following the recent departure of group co-head Micah Green to form a new venture.
Mehta will join in the summer. He currently serves as vice-president of international sales for Good Universe, where he will remain through Cannes.
Schweitzman joins on May 15 from Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, where she has built the feature slate and worked on titles in the upcoming Monster Universe for Universal.
Schweitzman began her career at CAA. Prior to Secret Hideout, she was an executive at 21st Century Fox, and before that served at Vendôme Pictures.
Mehta joined Good Universe in 2015 and was instrumental in the worldwide sales of Tallulah, When We First Met and Kin.
He launched a partnership with video game studio Campo Santo, whose bestselling...
CAA on Wednesday announced two new hires to the film finance and sales group led by Roeg Sutherland.
Akshay Mehta and Sarah Schweitzman have been brought in following the recent departure of group co-head Micah Green to form a new venture.
Mehta will join in the summer. He currently serves as vice-president of international sales for Good Universe, where he will remain through Cannes.
Schweitzman joins on May 15 from Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, where she has built the feature slate and worked on titles in the upcoming Monster Universe for Universal.
Schweitzman began her career at CAA. Prior to Secret Hideout, she was an executive at 21st Century Fox, and before that served at Vendôme Pictures.
Mehta joined Good Universe in 2015 and was instrumental in the worldwide sales of Tallulah, When We First Met and Kin.
He launched a partnership with video game studio Campo Santo, whose bestselling...
- 5/10/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Akshay Mehta and Sarah Schweitzman have been hired as agents in the CAA Film Finance & Sales Group. This comes as department head Roeg Sutherland prepares to lead the team into the Cannes Film Festival next week. Mehta, vice president of International Sales for Good Universe, will remain with that company through Cannes and facilitate the projects he has been working on. Schweitzman, who began her career at CAA, starts Monday and will be at Cannes for the…...
- 5/10/2017
- Deadline
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