Film Dept. ups Dan Stutz to exec VP

Sara Ebrahimi named VP of legal affairs

By DAVE MCNARY

Newly minted banner the Film Department has beefed up its executive ranks, tapping Dan Stutz as exec VP, business and legal affairs.

Stutz has worked at Yari Film Group for the past five years, most recently as senior VP of business and legal affairs, handling such pictures as "Crash," "The Illusionist," "First Snow," "The Matador" and "Prime." Prior to that, he spent four years as an associate at Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman, Grodin & Evall.

The company also named Sara Ebrahimi as VP of legal affairs and Kristen Figeroid as VP of international. Ebrahimi joins the Film Department after six years at UTA, where she most recently served as director of legal affairs; Figeroid had been at Media 8 Entertainment, where she was VP of international distribution, with responsibility for worldwide sales of films including "Running Scared," "The Upside of Anger" and "Monster."

The Film Department was formed earlier this year as a finance, production and international sales company with a $200 million capitalization by former Warner Independent president Mark Gill and former Miramax and Yari Film Group exec Neil Sacker. The company plans to fully finance and produce six films per year budgeted between $10 million and $45 million.