Nesim Hason

World Screen Weekly, August 28, 2008

President & Founder

New Films International

New Films International was launched with the intention of bridging the distance between the U.S. and the rest of the world, delivering movies that provide a window into other cultures. Its founder and president, Nesim Hason, looks at his work as a vehicle to create a global community and promote peace, and New Films aims to serve this goal with every production it touts for the international market.

“What we are trying to do is introduce foreign talent to the United States,” Hason explains, and the company also brings a number of American films to international audiences. Though New Films has its closest ties with the markets of Eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece and Latin America, the company is truly global in scope when it comes to adding titles to its catalogue. “All our titles are cast- and director-driven,” says Hason. As such, in terms of acquisitions, New Films “looks for high-quality titles with A-list talent in all kinds of genres.”

Adding about ten worldwide titles to its catalogue each year, with 15 titles for its core territories, the rest of New Films’ portfolio is stocked with its own productions, something Hason is very proud of. “We started producing our own films about four years ago,” he explains. “We currently have two films in preproduction and 15 in development�we will continue along this path and produce a few films each year.”

Its latest production, The Alphabet Killer, is based on the true story of the “double initial” killings that took place in Rochester, New York, in the ’70s. American actress Eliza Dushku (Wrong Turn, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) plays a driven police investigator whose commitment to the job borders on obsession. When she cannot crack the case of what she believes is the work of a serial killer, she winds up removed from her position at the precinct and sent to a psychiatric hospital. Years later she finds herself back on the killer’s hunt, flirting with disaster once again. Hason says that the production “has already been sold in most of the important countries.”

New Films’ slate has enabled the company to align with a number of key channel brands, including HBO Eastern Europe and North America, as well as MGM with an output deal for all TV rights in Latin America. New Films is also working on two other output deals with major companies for Japan and Spain.

What started as a small distribution company has now become a global distributor and producer, and Hason has been at the helm of this growth from the very beginning. His career has long involved introducing new things to foreign audiences, going back to 1980 when he began creating and selling mix-tapes in Turkey. “This was at a time in Turkey when people did not believe that if you put a cassette inside a VCR, you could see the color images on a TV screen,” he recalls. And his passion for opening people’s eyes to the world around them has only gotten stronger through the years.

“What I most love about my job is that I am creating new and exciting challenges for myself each day,” Hason explains. “From small distribution to worldwide distribution, and from producing movies to now creating our own studio, we are setting goals and reaching them. Plus, as a distribution company in a time of changing technology, we are also constantly dealing with new rights and territories. Then there are festivals and awards, and of course box-office sales. These are all enjoyable challenges.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski