Biografie
Amy Kaufman has worked on some of the most notable films of recent years, in both production and distribution capacities.
Her production company, Primary Productions, is based at Focus Features in a first-look deal, yielding Sin Nombre as its first film.
Ms. Kaufman established Primary in September 2005, after segueing from her position as executive vice president, production at Focus. She had been with Focus since its formation in the spring of 2002, as the production executive supervising, among other films, Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz; and Jean-François Ríchet's Assault on Precinct 13, which was released by Rogue Pictures. On behalf of Focus Features International, she was the
creative liaison with El Deseo, the production company owned by Agustín and Pedro Almodóvar, coordinating the overseas sales and distribution for El Deseo of Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education and Academy Award-winning Talk to Her, as well as Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me and The Secret Life of Words.
In her previous Focus capacity as executive vice president, acquisitions and co-productions, Ms. Kaufman had worked on such Focus films as Alejandro González Iñárritu's award-winning 21 Grams; and Sofia Coppola's Academy Award-winning Lost in Translation.
Immediately prior to the formation of Focus, Ms. Kaufman was senior vice president of acquisitions and co-productions at Good Machine International, part of the independent film production company Good Machine. While handling international sales in Europe and Latin America for GMI, she executive-produced Alfonso Cuarón's Academy Award-nominated Y Tu Mamá También. Before joining GMI in 1997, she worked at Miramax International.
At Primary, she is developing films both within and outside of the studio system, ranging from specialized films to genre movies. Ms. Kaufman is concentrating on working with new international and first-time filmmakers.
The Primary slate includes an update of the vampire thriller Near Dark, to be produced with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes, for Rogue Pictures; the political thriller The Whistleblower, to star Ashley Judd; and Everardo Gout's Mexican thriller Days of Grace.
Ms. Kaufman is also producing a short film for Swarovski Entertainment to be directed by Shekhar Kapur and is developing three features with Swarovski.