UK exec to speak at SPAA Conference

Stephen Garrett, Chairman of Kudos Film & Television and Executive Chairman of Shine Pictures, will be a keynote speaker at this year’s SPAA Conference.

The annual event for the Screen Producers Association of Australia takes place from 12 to 15 November at Docklands in Melbourne.

Garrett founded independent production company Kudos in 1992 with Jane Featherstone, which produced titles including The Hour, Spooks, Hustle, Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars and this month launches BBC/HBO co-production, Hunted, created by the X-Files’ Frank Spotnitz and starring Melissa George.

Film production company Kudos Pictures has produced Brighton Rock, Eastern Promises, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Disney’s first natural history feature documentary Crimson Wing He and his partner sold Kudos in 2006 becoming part of Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group.

In 2011, Kudos Pictures formed a joint venture, Shine Pictures, headed up by Garrett and new Head of Film Ollie Madden, with Los Angeles-based New Regency with upcoming movies to include The Gray Man and We’ll Take Manhattan.

Garrett began his career at Granada moving to Channel 4 as Commissioning Editor, Youth C4.