Chris Besseling, former marketing lead at eOne and Pathé UK, is joining Zygi Kamasa’s True Brit Entertainment as head of theatrical distribution, marketing and publicity.
Besseling is one of the distribution and financing outfit’s first major hires, with True Brit’s speedily expanding slate including Marching Powder, The Scurry, Giant, The Critic and Gurinder Chadha’s Christmas Karma.
He will be based in London and report to Kamasa.
Throughout his career Besseling has been responsible for launching over 200 films at the UK and Ireland box office. He has also held posts at Metrodome, the BFI, Optimum Releasing and consulted for Studiocanal.
During his time at eOne and Pathé, Besseling spearheaded the theatrical campaigns for titles including 1917, Suffragette, Green Book, Selma, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves and I, Tonya.
“[Besseling] has been marketing and releasing theatrical movies for over 20 years in the UK, and especially showed at eOne how successful marketing campaigns can deliver some incredible theatrical results,” said Kamasa.
”Our ambition at True Brit Entertainment is to really produce some special British films and back them with original and bold marketing campaigns and Chris is the ideal person to deliver that.”
Kamasa launched True Brit launched last November, and told Screen in February he plans to release six theatrical releases per year, and recruit a full-time team across marketing, publicity and sales, with five or six key hires in place by late spring to be housed in the London office, with a further two or three joining on the sales side later in the year.
“With an increasing number of British box office success stories in recent months, it’s an exciting time to be entering the marketplace,” said Besseling. “Reuniting with the likes of Gurinder Chadha on Christmas Karma and Craig Roberts on The Scurry, it’s a privilege to be collaborating with some of the boldest and most exciting voices in British cinema and to be bringing a wonderfully diverse, vital and vibrant slate of stories to the big screen.”
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