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. Saal started her career at Focus Features International.
Mehta has previously worked at Luma Pictures as head of strategy and business development, and at Bron Ventures as chief investment officer. At Upgrade, he will seek out partnership opportunities and run day-to-day operations.
Both Saal and Mehta will report directly to Upgrade co-presidents Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier.
The appointments come at a time the Los Angeles-based company, which launched last year, is looking to expand its development and production slate of local-language series and films for a global audience. The company is backed by German powerhouse Constantin Film.
Last month, Upgrade appointed Caroline Kusser as head of series.
The company recently announced a slate of new projects from Mexico, India and Italy, including Celso Garcia’s My Teacher – a Spanish-language remake of the South Korean film Mr Kim.
Other series in development include Japanese-language project A True Novel, produced by Shochiku; Spanish fantasy La Jaula, co-produced with DeAPlaneta and Minoria Absoluta; Australian strand Sausages; and Japanese mystery Twenty Faces, co-produced with The Klockworx.
“Akshay brings a wealth of experience to the role that perfectly positions him to lead the charge on content and business development at Upgrade, particularly during this key time of development for the company,” commented co-presidents Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier, adding about Saal: “With her deep business and creative relationships around the world, and her excellent taste, we’re happy that Vanessa will be driving our European presence.”
No comments yet