Stephens heads new sales outfit
by Annika Pham
UK veteran sales executive Bill Stephens has teamed up with German producers and financiers Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur from K5 Film to set up a new UK sales company, K5 International.
Stephens will be head of sales and marketing for the new company, with Karin Binnberg acting as sales assistant. Simon and Baur will oversee K5 International’s acquisitions and respectively handle production and business affairs. The new sales outfit will handle four to six feature films per year – mainly in the English language – with budgets of up to $20m.
“K5 International is a German company, but with an international sales outlook. This is why the emphasis will be on acquiring English language films”, explained Stephens. “Oliver, Daniel and I are more interested in quality than quantity and we will be very selective in both the number and types of projects we choose. We are also open to non-English language films, provided they have the commercial potential we are looking for”.
K5 Film, which has produced five German feature films in the last five years, will continue its relationship with German sales company Bavaria Film International, which handled its 2005 production Happy As One by Vanessa Jopp, shown in Berlin’s Panorama last year, but could also use K5 International in the future.
From a financial standpoint, K5 International will use its German and UK offices to open the doors for co-production and tax incentives in both countries. ‘We will be able to utilize the expertise and financial incentives within our own market and combine this with Bill’s presence in the UK, which for us is essential as London is one of the central hubs for international film sales and production”, stressed Baur.’
Stephens is indeed one of the most respected sales executives in the UK, having spent 15 years as director of sales and marketing at Film Four, then almost three years at Renaissance Films. K5 International has not announced any specific film for its new line-up but will hold meetings in Berlin and prepare for its official launch in Cannes.
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