Stuart Ford is expanding his ambitious LA and London-based sales company IM Global with three highly regarded additions to the executive suite and a new world cinema division set to be unveiled in Cannes.
Lakeshore international sales chief Jonathan Deckter will start work imminently as president of sales and distribution and oversee activities across IM Global’s four slates, reporting to Ford.
Former QED International and Media 8 executive Tatyana Joffe has joined as senior vice-president of international sales and will head up the genre division Octane, which famously spawned the global independent smash Paranormal Activity.
David Jourdan arrives from T&C Pictures International as senior vice-president of international sales with a focus on the new world cinema division, which it is understood will handle an eclectic roster including Bollywood and South-East Asian fare.
Joffe and Jourdan, along with London-based executive vice-president of sales and distribution Tim Grohne and LA-based executive vice-president of sales and distribution Ruzanna Kegeyan, will all report to Deckter.
The trio of hires and the new world cinema stable are the latest pieces in the jigsaw as Ford, who launched IM Global in 2007, seeks to establish a broad platform for US and international cinema encompassing commercial fare, genre titles and awards-worthy arthouse releases.
The Opus slate comprises $20m-plus star-driven, commercial cinema and sits alongside the genre-led Octane and arthouse Acclaim labels. The name of the world cinema division will be revealed in Cannes.
“The arrival of these three high profile and universally respected sales execs rounds out the structure which we have been building for the past few years,” Ford said. “When added to our existing stalwarts like Tim and Ruzanna we now have the strongest sales team in the business, collectively fronting as diverse and impressive a slate of films as any company in the overseas marketplace.”
“Stuart and the dynamic team at IM Global, many of whom I’ve known for years, have done a great job building a pioneering company in three short years,” Deckter said. “I look forward to continuing to deliver A-level theatrical product, targeted genre movies and auteur-driven films to our top tier clients all over the world and being a conduit for our ever expanding producing partners.”
“The top tier of the sales agency business is essentially dominated by boutique operations,” Ford added. “But we have an infrastructure and revenue model that allows us to operate a more expansive platform and which embraces the passion that myself and this highly experienced team shares for a diverse array of top level movies. We are an international film company in the truest sense of the word.”
The Cannes slate includes Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity follow-up Area 51; the shark action title Dark Tide starring Halle Berry; comedy Everything Must Go with Will Ferrell; and the horror film Astral from Saw director James Wan.
As previously reported, IM Global is also setting up a production joint venture with Alliance Communications that will be led by former CAA film financing expert Brian Kavanagh Jones.
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