Colombian-born film executive Daniel Negret has been appointed CEO of Causeway Films, to be based out of the company’s new London office.
Negret, who will divide his time between the UK, Australia and LA, joins Causeway from film financier Head Gear Films. As CEO, he oversaw the financier’s involvement in over 60 productions, including Talk To Me, How to Have Sex and Bandit, while also helping create the company’s financial packaging and executive producing arm. He also wrote and produced his own horror feature, Shaman, in Ecuador, and previously worked at at Ingenious, Olsberg SPI, and Merrill Lynch.
Negret said it was an honour to be joining the Causeway team.
“I’ve long admired them, their films, and the company they’ve built,” he said.
“I look forward to adding to their tremendous success and helping the company navigate through this exciting new chapter.”
His appointment comes as Causeway continues to celebrate Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me, which has become A24’s top genre release in North America with $US48.1 million to date, bringing the film’s global box office total to over $US89.4 million so far. In August, the distributor announced that a sequel was in the works.
Here in Australia, Talk to Me is the second highest grossing Australian film of the year, earning $4.2 million for Maslow Entertainment.
The company, which was established by producers Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings in 2014, has produced a raft of titles that have premiered at festivals internationally since launching with Sundance hit The Babadook, including The Nightingale (Venice 2018), Cargo (Tribeca 2018), Buoyancy (Berlinale 2019), Good Madam (Toronto 2021), You Won’t Be Alone (Sundance 2022), Blaze (Tribeca 2022), Of an Age (Melbourne 2022) and Housekeeping for Beginners (Venice 2023).
In a statement, Ceyton and Jennings said they were pleased to bring Negret on board to expand their collaborations and partnerships internationally across film and television.
“Having worked with Daniel for years in his role at Head Gear, we know he has the business and financial acumen, the understanding of our creative process, and the integrity to help grow Causeway while staying true to what we’ve built with great passion: producing entertaining, socially relevant and ground-breaking stories that allow original voices to achieve international success,” they said.