Vin Roberti, Chairman of Palisades Media Corp., announced today that veteran industry executive, Soumya Sriraman, has been named President and CEO of Palisades Tartan US and UK.
"Soumya's executive background with the studios and entrepreneurial spirit coupled with her fresh perspective and keen insights make her an ideal fit for our growing company," stated Roberti. "We are looking forward to her immediate contributions."
Sriraman added, “Vin’s track record of success with Palisades is reflected in the amazing catalog and team he has built. I am a huge fan of the Tartan catalog and plan to aggressively rebuild the brand and introduce US audiences to a new collection of cutting-edge and remarkable films.”
Palisades Tartan has emerged as one of the premier distributors of independent and arthouse cinema in the US and UK and has been on the forefront of consumer trends. Straddling both continents, their film line-up boasts an impressive repertoire in the UK including the Ingmar Bergman library, Takashi Miike’s AUDITION, horror phenom THE RING and INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which was successfully remade in the US and titled THE DEPARTED. Apart from many favorites such as Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs and Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light, the US library is anchored by Park Chan-wook’s Cannes jury prize winner, OLDBOY, the film that famously introduced the Western World to the Asia Extreme brand.
Roberti and Sriraman added that they planned to aggressively build the Palisades Tartan brand in the US and UK territories with new strategic acquisitions and mergers over the coming year. Sriraman remarked that despite shrinking shelf space, newer delivery mechanisms including digital represented a significant opportunity offering consumers many viewing modes to whet their appetite for independent films.
Sriraman entered into an undisclosed multi-year contract with the company and will be relocating to New York from Los Angeles. She will immediately begin representing the company at the major film markets worldwide and aggressively source new partnerships.
Most recently, Sriraman was Senior Vice President at Universal Music and Video Distribution¹s filmed entertainment arm, Vivendi. As one of the early members on the Vivendi core executive team, she helmed the growth of the company¹s home entertainment, theatrical and TV divisions, contributing to their successes. Prior to Vivendi, she was at Warner Home Video where she spearheaded core initiatives in the TV franchise division like Friends Finale, the rebranding efforts on ER etc. Earlier, at Universal Home Entertainment, she was a pioneer in the DVD catalog space, leading the successful re-launches of Scarface and Animal House, the former considered the most successful catalog relaunch in the history of DVD.
Ms. Sriraman has over 12 years of experience in the filmed entertainment space in a vast range of disciplines including category management, brand marketing, sales analysis, theatrical distribution and TV licensing. An engineer by education, Soumya holds a M.S. in Transportation Engineering from Texas A&M University and a MBA from University of California, Irvine.
ABOUT PALISADES TARTAN
Tartan Films was originally founded in 1984 in the UK and is credited with bringing Asian Extreme film to the West as well as some of the most compelling art house films of the last quarter century. In May 2008, Palisades Pictures acquired Tartan Films US library assets and two months later, acquired a majority of Tartan Films UK’s 400+ film library assets. The new company Palisades Tartan has operations both nationally and internationally. Palisades Tartan will continue to expand an already distinctive and provocative slate of films by focusing on quality film acquisitions, thus significantly increasing the size of their overall library in both territories. Palisades Pictures and its parent company Palisades Media Corp is a prestigious financier of print & advertising for the independent film market. Together with its affiliate, Palisades Media Asset Fund, Palisades has securitized and financed more than 550 films. www.PalisadesTartan.com
