1. RUSSELL SCHWARTZ
Co-Principal
Pandemic Marketing Corp
310-801-4737
PROFILE
Highly knowledgeable marketing executive with exceptional communication skills and a record
of major success at several motion picture studio and independent production companies. A
broad skill set which includes budgetary finance, media planning and execution, creative
advertising and executive staff management.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Relativity Media/Europa Films President, Marketing 2013 - 2014
Managed a staff of over 40 people in publicity, digital, creative advertising, promotions and
media buying. Among the titles released during his tenure: The Family, Don Jon, Free Birds, 3
Days to Kill, Earth to Echo and The November Man.
In addition to his core marketing job, Russell rans the Relativity Marketing Council, comprised
of a group of young execs from the nine different divisions of Relativity Media (sports, brand,
content, tv, etc) who come together on a monthly basis to cross pollinate ideas and how best to
integrate.
Pandemic Marketing President 2008 - 2012
Pandemic Marketing provides marketing solutions to all areas of the motion picture industry.
Pandemic employs a cadre of individuals and boutique companies in order to handle all types of
theatrical and ancillary releases from small independent to big studio productions. Pandemic
currently has a client base of over 15 companies it has worked with including MGM, National
Geographic, 2929 Productions, Freestyle Releasing, Liddell Entertainment, CinemaNX Films,
Darko Entertainment, Herrick Entertainment, Newmarket Pictures, Cinetic Media, Hart-Lunsford
Pictures, Beyond Media Group, PCH Films, Freeman Films, Anonymous Content, Miramax,
Screen Gems and Constantin Films
2. New Line Cinema President, Domestic Marketing 2001 to 2008
- Managed staff of 60 people in Los Angeles and New York
- Reported to COO of company and Co-Chairmen
- Created and managed theatrical marketing campaigns for over 60 films including The
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Hairspray, Austin Powers, Elf, Wedding Crashers, About
Schmidt, Rush Hour 2 and 3, A History of Violence, The Blade Trilogy, Texas Chainsaw
Massacre 1 and 2, The Notebook and Monster in Law.
- The templates created for these films were used for marketing campaigns worldwide as
well as the Home Video and Television windows.
- Oversaw all aspects of the evolution of the marketing campaign – creative advertising,
broadcast media planning and execution, budget and finance, new media strategies,
national promotions, merchandising and, of course, all publicity and talent related
initiatives.
- Generated a North America box office of $3.2 billion dollars for the company
- Spearheaded all of New Line’s Academy Award campaigns that resulted in 38
nominations and 18 Academy Award wins.
- Yahoo/ShoWest Big Chair Award for Integrated Marketing for Wedding Crashers
2006
- Advertising Age Marketer of the Year Award for 2004 and 2006.
- Winner of numerous awards for creative advertising
USA Films President 1999 – 2001
- Independent production and distribution company owned by Barry Diller’s IAC
Interactive Corp (formally USAI, Inc)
- Managed company of 50 employees that developed, produced and marketed independent
motion pictures including Nurse Betty, Being John Malkovich, Topsy Turvey, Pitch Black
- Traffic (2000) was company’s highest grossing film with $125 million at the box office
and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning four.
Gramercy Pictures President 1992 – 1999
- Wholly owned subsidiary of PolyGram Records.
- Managed company of 45 employees
- Conceived as a model taken from the record industry, the company broke new ground for
its unique structure that mirrored the original United Artists of the 1960’s.
- Gramercy served as the centralized marketing and distribution core for a number of
independently owned production companies including Working Title Films, Propaganda
Films, Interscope Productions and Egg Pictures (Jodie Foster).
- Company’s most notable successes were Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fargo, Dead
Man Walking, Bean, The Usual Suspects, Elizabeth, The Big Lebowski, Dazed and
Confused, Clay Pigeons and When We Were Kings.
3. Miramax Films Executive Vice President 1989- 1992
- Managed staff of 20 that oversaw all marketing functions of the company prior to the
company’s sale to Disney
- Films included Academy Award-winning My Left Foot and Cinema Paradiso, the
Academy Award-nominated The Grifters; as well as Madonna: Truth Or Dare and The
Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Love
Island Pictures / Island Alive VP Marketing / President 1983 - 1989
- One of the first companies that spearheaded the American Independent Cinema
movement of the 1980’s
- Films produced and distributed included El Norte, Stop Making Sense, Kiss of the
Spider Woman, Choose Me, Mona Lisa, She’s Gotta Have It, A Trip to Bountiful
AFFILIATIONS
- Member, Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences
o Public Relations Branch Nominating and Rules Council
- Member, British Academy of Film and Television Arts
- Member, Film Independent LA
TEACHING ACCREDITATION
- Lecturer - AFI, UCLA, Peter Stark Producing Program, USC
- Panelist/Moderator - Sundance Film Festival, American Film Market, Cannes, Sundance
Institute summer producing program
- Adjunct Professor, Chapman University, Dodge School of Film and Media