Emilie Georges

CEO & Co-Founder • Paris

IMDb

Emilie Georges began her career in 1995 at the Council of Europe focusing on cultural and educational rights of minorities. She paired her expertise with her passion for cinema spotlighting original, diverse and distinctive voices from all over the world as sales manager at Flach Pyramide in 1999. In 2001, she joined Pan Européenne leading development and international co-productions. 

Prior to starting her new venture Paradise City with producer Naima Abed, Georges founded Memento Distribution and Production in 2003 which expanded into Memento International & La Cinéfacture (production) in 2004. Georges has been devoted to promoting, producing and supporting high-profile, director-driven independent films such as Laurent Cantet’s THE CLASS (Golden Palm, Cannes 2008); Asghar Farhadi’s A SEPARATION (2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), THE SALESMAN (2015 Academy Award for Best Film in a Foreign Language), Joachim Trier’s LOUDER THAN BOMBS (2013) and THELMA (2017),  Wash Westmoreland & Richard Glatzer’s STILL ALICE( 2016); Josh & Benny Safdie’s GOOD TIME (2017). Several directors she repped are now working on the Marvel franchise – Jon Watts, Destin Daniel Cretton or Cate Shortland! 

Over the years Georges has been co-president and vice-president of ADEF, the French association of Sales Agents and has been an elected member of the Directors’ Board and Executive Committee of Unifrance (2008-2013), and is an expert for French CNC. Georges was also named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government. 

Georges currently runs Memento International alongside her production companies at Paradise City (including ex-La Cinefacture). Her credits include US indie genre films such as Jeremy Saulnier’s BLUE RUIN and Jim Mickle’s COLD IN JULY & WE ARE WHAT WE ARE Sundance winners World dramatic CIRCLES (2014) by Srdan Golubovich & CONTRACORRIENTE (Audience, 2010) by Javier Fuentes Leon; as well as Luca Guadagnino’s Oscar winner feature film CALL ME BY YOUR NAME for which she received an Oscar nomination.

Under the Paradise City banner she has produced Anthony Chen's upcoming English debut DRIFT, starring Cynthia Erivo that premiered in Sundance Film Festival 2023. She's currently working with talents such as Edward Berger, Lili Horvát, Philippe Lacôte and Babak Jalali.

Naima Abed

CEO & Co-Founder • London

IMDb

Naima Abed is a producer and since 2020 a principal of Paradise City, an entertainment venture she co-founded with Emilie Georges and for which she now runs the London office.

She began her film career in 2004 at Celluloid Dreams before joining Maximum Films in Toronto in 2007, where she helped transition the company to media giant, eOne.

With an appetite to learn more about production, Abed moved to London in 2010 where she’s been living ever since and joined Headline Pictures as their production executive.  While at Headline, she was involved in Dustin Hoffman’s QUARTET, Ralph Fiennes’ THE INVISIBLE WOMAN as well returning Amazon series THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

She started working with Georges in 2014 at Memento International and La Cinéfacture, focusing on expanding and developing the companies’ English-speaking slate and shifting the company’s role from a traditional sales agent to an innovative and effective executive producer, as well as pushing the development and production activities forward. She exec produced Luca Guadagnino’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, Justin Kurzel’s TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG or Nicolas Pesce’s PIERCING.

Under the Paradise City banner she has produced Anthony Chen's upcoming English debut DRIFT, starring Cynthia Erivo that premiered in Sundance Film Festival 2023. She's currently working with talents from the U.K. and beyond such as Edward Berger, Lili Horvát, Philippe Lacôte, Babak Jalali, Carolina Cavalli and many more.