If you were to design a global sales agent in a lab, they would come out looking a lot like Tamara Birkemoe.
Born in Italy to Chilean parents and raised between Sweden and Rome before moving to the U.S. for film school, the multilingual exec has been a force on the indie film scene since her first job, straight out of UCLA, for Mark Damon’s MDP Worldwide. For the next 16 years, Birkemoe put in time at MDP (later Media 8 Entertainment) and then at Foresight Unlimited, the production and sales group Damon set up in 2005. The slate she oversaw ranged from studio-released big-budget action fare, such as Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor and Baltasar Kormákur’s 2 Guns, both Universal Pictures films, which grossed $155 million and $132 million worldwide, respectively; to Kevin Costner starrer The Upside of Anger, a New Line release that earned $28 million worldwide; and Patty Jenkins’ low-budget true-crime drama Monster, about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, which won star Charlize Theron the Oscar and earned more than $80 million, including some $65 million for Newmarket Films domestically.
“In addition to her feel for story, [Tamara’s] instinct for selling, acquiring and marketing [is outstanding],” says Damon. “She would see where a film’s niche was and exploit it to its fullest potential. I have had many hundreds of people work with me during my 50-year span in the production and distribution business, and rarely have I had an executive who shined so brilliantly in all aspects and phases of our business.”
In 2019, when Foresight was acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s distribution arm Screen Media, Birkemoe took over as executive vp at Screen, while still serving as president of Foresight.
Last year, when newbie media investment group Ashland Hill Media Finance launched its global sales arm, Palisades Park Pictures, they tapped Birkemoe as CEO. Ashland, set up in 2022 by Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross, and backed by an alternative investment fund with assets under management of nearly $2.5 billion, has already plowed $100 million-plus into a slate of projects across all genres, including Phillip Noyce’s action thriller Fast Charlie, starring Pierce Brosnan; Christophe Gans’ horror reboot Return to Silent Hill; and Rupert Sanders’ The Crow, a hotly anticipated reimagining of the 1994 supernatural action horror classic.
Palisades is also in the market for rights. Last year, Birkemoe signed a deal with Germany’s VIP Medienfonds for all available rights to Media 8 film library, including Monster, Upside of Anger, and such features as the actioner Battle in Seattle with Theron, Channing Tatum, and Woody Harrelson; and the Barbara Kopple action thriller Havoc starring Tatum, Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. All told, the VIP library includes a mix of worldwide and foreign sales rights to 14 films released between 2002 and ’13.
Birkemoe’s first market as Palisades boss was in Cannes last year, but Berlin could see the company truly come into its own. Its EFM slate includes the John Travolta-Katherine Heigl rom-com That’s Amore!, directed by Green Book writer Nick Vallelonga; Neil Marshall’s action thriller Duchess with Colm Meaney; and the long-in-development family film The Magic Faraway Tree, a modern-day adaptation of Enid Blyton’s children’s classic, which BAFTA-winning screenwriter Simon Farnaby (Wonka, Paddington 2) is adapting and Ben Gregor (Britannia) will direct.
“We have a mix of things,” says Birkemoe. “The goal is to get about two to three bigger theatrical movies a year, working with studios to release domestically if possible and a few films in the $20 million to $30 million range, probably more genre, but still with a solid cast [and] a few smaller, award-quality ones. We don’t want to just do movies, we want to do good movies.”
THR talked to her about her career, the impact of the Hollywood strikes on business, and Palisades’ strategy.
What was your first job in the business?
I grew up in Europe and came to the U.S. for film school, at UCLA. After graduating, I interviewed everywhere and got a job at MDP, which was owned by Mark Damon at the time. This was in 2000. I was doing acquisitions and sales and I got promoted, and into the Media 8 days, when we actually had some money coming in, I moved into doing more production. If you remember Monster, The Upside of Anger, Running Scared with Paul Walker. We did a lot of good movies. Media 8 was a great part of my life. Then Mark exited to start Foresight, and he asked me to come over and be a part of that. So we started Foresight in 2004. I was vp of production. I had transitioned from acquisition and sales to production, but because we were a small company, I basically oversaw everything, doing production, overseeing domestic and international sales, theatrical and library. I eventually got promoted to president and ran the company for 15 years. The model at Palisades Park Pictures is actually quite similar to the Foresight model. We want to be part of the movies early on, be part of the packaging, doing the theatrical deals. I feel every day I’m looking at the news and there is a new big package that has sold to a streamer or studio. If you’re independent, you have to get in there earlier, you can’t wait until the packages are out, you have to produce them, package them yourself, find financing for them.
With Ashland Hill behind you, I assume financing isn’t the biggest problem.
Of course, it’s amazing to have them, because they are financing the company and we can do movies with them — that’s the goal. It’s nice not to have to always scramble around to find the cash on your own. But we can do projects separately, with third parties. With The Magic Faraway Tree, Ashland had the relationship with the producers and I came in and we worked on the numbers and we committed to financing the movie. We’re securing cast right now. The director is working on the visuals and getting the key crew in place. It’s a perfect example of the sort of thing we are going to do moving forward. It’s a bigger-budget project that we think can reach a four-quadrant audience. With these big theatrical projects, it’s always a leap of faith, but if the script is strong enough, if the producers are at a certain level, we are ready to jump.
Is that the primary goal with Palisades, to do theatrical movies?
We have a mix of things. The goal is to get about two to three bigger theatrical movies a year, working with studios to release domestically if possible, and a few films in the $20 million-$30 million range, probably more genre, but still with a solid cast, which maybe don’t have to go wide domestically and could be theatrical on the international market, although theatrical internationally is obviously connected with domestic. And a few smaller ones — you know, award-quality ones with great scripts and great filmmakers. From the first time I sat down with the Ashland Hill guys, that has been our goal. We don’t want to just do movies, we want to do good movies.
You launched Palisades in Cannes last year, what’s changed in the market since then?
Obviously, you have two markets, the domestic and the international. I think the domestic market is not doing too well in the independent space. Buyers aren’t buying as much and they aren’t paying as much. It’s become more difficult. During COVID, there was a big rush to buy movies that did very well on streamers, but that business has really gone down. People are much more careful now. I think that’s going to change at a certain point. People still need movies. On the international market, I feel a real desire for theatrical movies, for bigger films. So you really have to pay attention to the script, the director, to what makes this project different from the 10 other ones out there that can make it stand out and go theatrical. Buyers have become more patient and more selective. For the right movie, they will step up and they will chase it. But if they don’t find anything, they’re fine to sit back and wait.
What’s been the impact of the end of the writers and actors strikes in terms of projects and packages becoming available?
People are still being very selective. It was something that started during COVID when we had more time to think about what we really wanted to do. I feel people are still taking their time and not rushing into things. That goes for talent as well as for buyers, for basically everyone in the business right now.
You have a truly cosmopolitan background, raised in Europe but with Latin American parents, and now more than two decades working in the U.S.
Yeah, I was born in Italy. My parents immigrated there from Chile. We moved to Sweden when I was a toddler, then back to Italy. I did elementary school in Rome, and we moved back to Sweden. Then back to Italy. Then I moved to the U.S. for university. So I bounced around a lot.
You’ve spent most of your career working with Mark Damon, a true legend in the indie film business. What’s the most important thing you learned from him?
Probably flexibility. He is very flexible. Mark used to be an actor, that was his dream. But he wasn’t a good enough actor. So he thought, “If you can’t reach your dreams, find a new dream.” He’s always been able to adapt really easily, to change his plans or the plans for a movie, to do whatever was needed. That’s one of his great strengths and something I learned from him. And buyers will rave about Mark’s ability to pitch. His actor skills come in when he “performs” his pitches, he can tear up on command. I’ve seen him turn a room from not interested to buying a movie with a pitch alone. When I started working for Mark, one of the first things he did, before my first market, and before every market, was get me to pitch to him. He gave no-sugar-coating feedback, which was nerve-wracking. But soon it became a real two-hander, with Mark and I pitching together, adding different textures, different elements to the story. I do the same with my team. I can feel their discomfort when they’re put on the spot. But you can’t grow if you stay in your comfort zone.
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