Joseph Hewitt, Alexandra Da Silva

Source: Protagonist Pictures

Joseph Hewitt, Alexandra Da Silva

UK sales, finance and production company Protagonist Pictures has made a suite of promotions and hires across its sales and marketing teams.

Joseph Hewitt has been tapped from fellow UK sales agent HanWay Films as senior marketing and distribution manager. At HanWay, Hewitt worked on films including Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio, Ron Howard’s Pavarotti and Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt.

Alexandra Da Silva has been promoted from sales executive to sales manager, looking after new title sales in Eastern Europe, Asia and select European territories. She reports to acting senior vice president of sales and distribution Sarah Lebutsch, who has joined from London-based seller Independent Entertainment as Janina Vilsmaier’s maternity cover.

Leni Jaeger has been upped to marketing and publicity executive from a marketing co-ordinator role, while Emilie Szemraj is now creative executive, previously acquisitions and development coordinator. Szemraj will continue to work across both acquisitions and development, supporting sales, executive production and development slates, with a particular focus on nurturing new and upcoming talent. Jaeger and Hewitt report into senior vice president global marketing and publicity, Mounia Wissinger.

Manuela Perez Gomez has also been brought on as operations assistant.

Protagonist CEO Dave Bishop praised his new team line-up as chiming with “an incredibly exciting time for Protagonist’s increasingly dynamic slate”.

The current slate includes comedy The Players, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly; Scottish family drama Glenrothan, the feature directorial debut from Brian Cox, who also stars alongside Alan Cumming in the project; and Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk, starring Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson.