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 English debut DRIFT, starring Cynthia Erivo that premiered in Sundance Film Festival 2023. She's currently working with talents such as Lili Horvát, Sophie Barthes, Géraldine Danon, Ursula Meier, Lou Jeunet, Babak Jalali, Georgia Oakley, Edward Berger, Sofia Alaoui, Philippe Lacôte, Moshe Rosenthal, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Danielle Lessovitz, Manele Labidi, Wolfgang Fischer, and Tom CJ Brown.

Naima Abed

CEO & Co-Founder • London

IMDb

Naïma Abed is a producer and, since 2020, a partner at Paradise City, a production company she co-founded with Émilie Georges, where she now manages the London office. She began her film career in 2004 at Celluloid Dreams before joining Maximum Films in Toronto in 2007, where she contributed to the company's transition to the media giant eOne. Based in London since 2010, she initially worked as a production executive at Headline Pictures, participating in projects such as QUARTET directed by Dustin Hoffman, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN directed by Ralph Fiennes, and the Amazon series THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. In 2014, she began working alongside Émilie Georges at Memento International and La Cinéfacture, focusing on expanding and developing the catalogue of English-language films and evolving the company's role from a traditional sales agent to an innovative and effective executive producer, while advancing development and production activities. She has served as Executive Producer on major titles such as CALL ME BY YOUR NAME by Luca Guadagnino, TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG by Justin Kurzel, and PIERCING by Nicolas Pesce.

With her knowledge of international shoots and the Anglo-Saxon market, Naima excels in supporting directors who wish to work across new frontiers, both in France and abroad, particularly on first English-language films. Paradise City is currently developing around fifteen feature films and series with talents such as Lili Horvát, Sophie Barthes, Géraldine Danon, Ursula Meier, Lou Jeunet, Babak Jalali, Georgia Oakley, Edward Berger, Sofia Alaoui, Philippe Lacôte, Moshe Rosenthal, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Danielle Lessovitz, Manele Labidi, Wolfgang Fischer, and Tom CJ Brown.