Ira Deutchman

Ira Deutchman has been making, marketing and distributing films for twenty-seven years, having worked on over 130 films including some of the most successful independent films of all time. He was one of the founders of Cinecom and later created Fine Line Features—two companies that were created from scratch and in their respective times, helped define the independent film business.

Currently Deutchman is President and CEO of Emerging Pictures, a New York-based digital film production and exhibition company. Deutchman is also a partner in Redeemable Features, an independent production company that he founded to develop and produce a wide range of theatrical and television programming.

Among the over 60 films he acquired and released at Fine Line were Jane Campion’s "An Angel at My Table," Gus van Sant’s "My Own Private Idaho," Jim Jarmusch’s "Night on Earth," Robert Altman’s "The Player" and "Short Cuts," Roman Polanski’s "Bitter Moon" and "Death and the Maiden," Alan Rudolph’s "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," Mike Leigh’s "Naked," and the award-winning "Hoop Dreams," now the highest grossing non-music documentary in history.

Prior to Fine Line, as President of The Deutchman Company, he provided marketing consulting services for such films as Steven Soderburgh’s "sex, lies, and videotape" for Miramax, Charles Burnett’s "To Sleep With Anger" for The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Whit Stillman’s "Metropolitan" for New Line Cinema.

Previously, Deutchman was one of the founding partners and President of Marketing and Distribution for Cinecom Entertainment Group, the film distribution company known for such diverse releases as Merchant/Ivory’s "A Room with a View," Jonathan Demme’s "Stop Making Sense," Gregory Nava’s "El Norte" and John Sayles’ "The Brother From Another Planet."

While at United Artists Classics, Films Incorporated and Cinema 5 Ltd., highlights included Lina Wertmuller’s "Seven Beauties" and "Swept Away," Barbara Koppel’s "Harlan County, USA," Jean-Jacques Beineix’s "Diva," and Francois Truffaut’s "The Last Metro." While still in college, he organized and marketed the midwest premiere of John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence."

Deutchman is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Film Division at Columbia University, and serves on the advisory boards of the Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. His screen credits include Associate Producer of John Sayles’ "Matewan," Executive Producer of Jonathan Demme’s "Swimming to Cambodia," Gary Sinise’s "Miles From Home," Paul Bartel’s "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills," Matty Rich’s "Straight Out of Brooklyn," Stephen Gyllenhaal’s "Waterland," Maggie Greenwald’s "The Ballad of Little Jo," Alan Rudolph’s "Mrs. Parker & the Vicious Circle," Paul Auster’s "Lulu On the Bridge," Wayne Wang’s “Center of the World,” Daniel Noah’s “Twelve” and Anthony Jaswinski’s “Killing Time.” Deutchman was the Producer of Tony Vitale’s "Kiss Me, Guido," Sarah Kernochan’s "All I Wanna Do," Mark Christopher’s "54," Adam Davidson’s "Way Past Cool" and two upcoming films—Bob Gale’s “Interstate 60” and Tanya Wexler’s “Ball in the House.” He was also Consulting Producer on the CBS sitcom “Some of My Best Friends.”

He is a graduate of Northwestern University, with a major in film.