Daniel Otto has been appointed as the Head of Acquisitions; Sales and Co-Productions at Swiss Ascot Elite Entertainment Group’s Munich-based German theatrical operation Ascot Elite Filmverleih.

For the past four years, Otto had been the Director of Acquisitions at Sony Pictures Television Deutschland and previously held posts at Premiere, T-Online International, Peppermint and the KirchGroup.

Commenting on this latest appointment, Ascot Elite’s CEO Ralph Dietrich noted that Otto is “known for being an excellent and well connected buyer and knows the International and German market by heart. Based on his background and personality he will give a valuable addition to our team.“

Ascot Elite’s German theatrical arm was relaunched in autumn 2010 after an absence of 14 years from this market with Rodrigo Cortés’ Buried and has followed with Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone and John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard (which opened in German cinemas on Sept 22).

This year saw the Swiss parent company acquiring all rights for German-speaking Europe to further films such as the Will Ferrell comedy Everything Must Go, David Wnendt’s neo-Nazi drama Combat Girls, Richard de Aragues’ 3D documentary TT3D - Closer To The Edge, and the Sam Shepard dramaBlackthorn.

At the end of the summer, Ascot Elite acquired US filmmaker Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize and Grand Prix in Cannes’ Critics Week sidebar.

The enigmatic drama starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain was also awarded a Golden Eye in the International Feature Film competition of this year’s Zurich Film Festival. Take Shelter is set to be released by Ascot Filmverleih into German cinemas on March 1, 2012. (ends)

Topics