Variety Honors Universal Pictures With International Achievement in Film Award: ‘Theatrical Is the Core of Our Business’

Ellise Shafer
·2 min read
Variety Honors Universal Pictures With International Achievement in Film Award: ‘Theatrical Is the Core of Our Business’
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Film industry players gathered at Mr. Nakamoto at the Mondrian hotel in Cannes on Monday night to celebrate Universal Pictures International.

As Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh pointed out in his opening remarks, Universal had several big successes this past year, not the least of which was Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which took home seven Oscars. The studio also produced box office hits “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “M3GAN” and “Cocaine Bear,” and is promising a victory lap this year with “The Bikeriders,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Twisters” and “Wicked” on the lineup.

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For this reason, Universal Pictures International was awarded Variety‘s international achievement in film award, which was accepted by the company’s president of distribution — international Veronika Kwan Vandenberg.

During her speech, Kwan Vandenberg thanked her team, including NBCUniversal chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley, head of business affairs Jimmy Horowitz, head of global distribution Peter Levinsohn, head of production Peter Cramer and Focus Features’ Peter Kujawski.

“Of course, it all starts with the product, and we are so privileged to work with the greatest filmmakers in the business today,” Kwan Vandenberg said. “I would like to especially acknowledge all of them who contributed to our 2023 lineup, but especially Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas for their brilliance and vision.”

She continued, “Theatrical is the core of our business and we remain committed to providing a broad and diverse range of films across a variety of genres and that is represented by 29 films we have this year from DreamWorks, Universal and Focus Features. So a lot to look forward to, and we’re very excited for the year to come.”

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