April
10
Ray Lands Distrib Gig at Kimmel
Indie distrib vet Bingham Ray, who has been consulting at IFC Films (on such films as Susanne Bier's Oscar-nominated After the Wedding) since he left specialty distrib UA in 2004, has now landed the perfect job. He'll be supervising the marketing and release of movies for well-funded indie producer Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Ray, who is currently based in New York, will split his time between the two coasts.
Kimmel has hired a bunch of smart people with taste to work for him, from former Fox acquisitions vet Jim Tauber, ex-Mirage Entertainment exec and producer Bill Horberg to production exec Josh Deighton; Ray can be added to that list. Most of SKE's projects either go out through MGM (through the end of 2008) or various studio partners. Marc Forster's The Kite Runner is due this fall from DreamWorks/Paramount Vantage, and Kasi Lemmons' Talk to Me will go out through Focus/Rogue this July. Ray is well-suited to the task of making sure that the right things happen to SKE's classy film slate, especially at MGM (which needs help fine-tuning its release execution).
My Variety colleague Dave McNary broke the story, which will be updated later.
Bingham Ray, former topper at United Artists and October Films, is heading up a new distribution division at indie banner Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Ray headed UA for three years, ankling in early 2004. A high point of his tenure was the acquisition of U.S. rights to "Bowling for Columbine" at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.At October Films, which Ray co-founded, he released such award-winning pics as "Life Is Sweet," "Secrets and Lies," "Breaking the Waves," "The Celebration," "Joe Gould's Secret" and "The Apostle."
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I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to it, but "welcome back", so to speak, in the new format; after weeks of African cinema screenings for a class I'm taking, it was great to plunge back into some Hollywood insider stuff. I like the nice clean new look, too.
Posted by: Gareth | April 10, 2007 at 03:35 PM
thanks. I just figured out how to make pictures bigger!
Posted by: Anne | April 10, 2007 at 05:57 PM