30/04/2009

Kalle Friz has been appointed senior vice-president in charge of theatrical distribution at Kinowelt. He will take up his post in July and work under the group’s president, Jan-Pelgrom de Haas.

The latter commented: "Kinowelt wants to develop further, so Friz’s knowledge, experience and passion for cinema will be perfectly in tune with the rich catalogue that we’ve developed over recent months".

Friz (38) has worked at Twentieth Century Fox since 2002. In 2006, he became head of Fox Searchlight titles, acquisitions and local co-productions and handled the launch of films such as Krabat [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Juno.

For Friz, his appointment at Kinowelt is "a big challenge. The fact that Kinowelt is part of the Studio Canal group is just as fascinating in my opinion as its tradition and strong local allegiance".

The Kinowelt group – which includes some of Germany’s most important distributors (theatrical and DVD) and sellers (of film and television titles on a national and international level) – became part of French group Studio Canal last year. Its catalogue features over 7,000 titles.

Its forthcoming releases include international titles The Ghost by Roman Polanski, Chloe by Atom Egoyan and Dear John by Lasse Hallström, as well as the German animated film Friends Forever [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

(Translated from French)