Ashland Hill Media Finance has launched a global sales company headed by industry veteran Tamara Birkemoe.
Palisades Park Pictures is launching ahead of next month’s Cannes Film Festival, with operations in Los Angeles and London. The venture, which will soon unveil its inaugural slate of projects, comes a year after the launch of Ashland Hill, which was set up last May by Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross.
Ashland Hill will continue its operations financing films, while PPP will board sales on a handful of Ashland Hill Media Finance titles in addition to a slate of third-party titles.
Birkemoe will serve as CEO, and will work out of Los Angeles and London. The company’s executive committee will include Simpson, Williams and Bross as well as industry stalwart Mark Damon.
Birkemoe began her career in production and distribution at MDP and Media 8 Entertainment before heading Damon’s Foresight Unlimited for 16 years, where she oversaw the company slate, including studio fare such as “Lone Survivor,” directed by Peter Berg, and “2 Guns” from Baltazar Kurmakur, both of which were released by Universal Pictures.
Later, she was appointed to the role of executive VP of Screen Media, overseeing the international department and joining the Screen global acquisition and co-production team, while continuing to serve as president of the Foresight subsidiary.
Since its 2022 launch, Ashland Hill Media Finance has invested more than $100 million across 14 projects. In addition to Philip Noyce’s action thriller “Fast Charlie,” which stars Pierce Brosnan, the company’s slate includes: Christophe Gans’ “Return To Silent Hill”; Kari Skogland’s sequel “Wind River: The Next Chapter”; Rupert Sanders’ reimagining of “The Crow” starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs; and the Jesse V. Johnson-directed “Chief of Station,” starring Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko.
Ashland Hill is backed by an alternative investment fund with assets under management of over $2.47 billion.
Birkemoe said: “I am absolutely thrilled to join forces with Ashland Hill and launch Palisades Park Pictures. Our combined strengths offer a full-service film company with an edge. We are building a robust slate of highly commercial projects, with the goal of becoming the go-to partner for top level producers and filmmakers, and providing premium content to our worldwide licensing partners for years to come.”
Simpson, Ashland Hill managing partner and PPP board member, added: “It was great to reconnect with Tamara while working together on ‘Fast Charlie,’ she truly is a first class executive. This alliance compliments our ongoing third-party financing activity and now enables us to better serve our partners as a one stop shop for producers.”
